Forgiveness
by dS-Tiff
Summary: Fraser and Ray are first on the the scene of a terrible accident, which is just the start of a mystery that leads to danger, romance, lap dancing and too much cake.
1. Chapter 1

_**I'd had the opening to this in my mind for ages and I had no idea where it was going to go...anyway, this is where it went! Huge thanks must go to Vic32 and Rubberducky100 for all of your encouragement again :) Please feel free to submit a review, thank you kindly!**_

FORGIVENESS

CHAPTER 1

"So Fraser," Ray Kowalski gripped the steering wheel of the GTO tightly as the tyres gripped the dusty road and they headed back towards Chicago, "that went kinda well, didn't it." Ray couldn't help a small smile as he cast his mind back over the events of the last two days. A kidnapping case had taken them out of the city, but now they were on their way home and Ray was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed.

"Indeed it did," agreed Constable Benton Fraser, looking over his shoulder at the sleeping form of his half-wolf Diefenbaker, curled up on the back seat, "the unfortunate victim has been returned safely to her family and the malfeasant is incarcerated. It went, as you say, well."

"And I kissed the girl!" added Ray, his grin broadening now. "That, er, that doesn't happen every day."

"More accurately, the girl kissed you," Fraser pointed out, raising his eyebrows as the corner of his mouth twitched into a smile, "she did appear rather taken with you."

"Oh yeah," agreed Ray, his eyes sparkling, "and I have her number." He patted his jacket pocket where he'd safely stowed the torn off corner of an envelope with the precious digits on.

Although their interactions with the kidnap victim's sister had been limited, Fraser had observed her to be a pleasant young woman. Perhaps she had simply been grateful to them for rescuing her sister, or perhaps she genuinely did have feelings for Ray? Fraser hoped the latter were true, Ray needed some good fortune in his love life, he realised. Fraser sighed, he could do with the same in his own too. He gave a tiny ironic laugh. His love life? It's not like he didn't have plenty of opportunities of course, but girls throwing themselves at him whilst on sentry duty didn't really play into his ideas of romance. "And are you intending to telephone her?" he asked his partner.

"Of course," replied Ray, still grinning, but then suddenly his face dropped, "well, maybe..." He sighed, what was he thinking? She couldn't have really been interested in him? Not a Chicago cop, she was a country girl, they had nothing in common really? He was quickly talking himself out of this now. "I mean, she was hot, but, er, I don't think she really had the hots for me did she?"

"I'm not really in a position to judge," replied Fraser, "although by virtue of the fact that she furnished you with her contact information, one would assume that she was, at that moment at least, hoping for further...um...contact?"

Ray laughed, how could his buddy make a prospective new romance sound so, well so unromantic? "OK then buddy," he said, his mood lighter now, "tell me about your ideal woman." He grinned and glanced across to the passenger seat, knowing that Fraser's face would be turning a lovely shade of crimson right about now.

"Um, my, um...I'm not sure that I..." Fraser fumbled for words, wondering where on earth this line of questioning had come from? They'd been talking about Ray and women, hadn't they?

"Y'know, like your fantasy woman," prompted Ray, "c'mon, ya must have an idea? It's not like ya don't look at girls Fraser? Don't try to deny it either, 'coz I've seen ya. All that Canadian politeness and, er, chivalry? I don't buy it buddy, you're a guy and guys have...well, I've seen ya lookin', that's all I'm sayin'. So, er, blonde or brunette?"

"Blonde," replied Fraser quickly, trying not to squirm with embarrassment. A few years ago he would never have been able to express a preference. In fact his abrupt announcement of 'blonde' was perhaps not entirely accurate. He thought of Victoria, her darks curls tumbling over her shoulders...her hair was beautiful, everything about her was beautiful, but he couldn't allow himself to think about her in that way anymore, it hurt too much, he couldn't allow himself to think about her at all. "Blonde," he repeated, more firmly this time.

"OK," grinned Ray, "I heard ya the first time. I like a brunette, long wavy hair, dark eyes, um, not too tall, skinny too I guess, coz, er, look at me Fraser...I'm not built to handle too much, right?" He laughed as the fleeting image of being seduced by a huge woman flashed into his head, his fingers sinking into her ample flesh as he pulled her closer...oh, OK, maybe he would try that one day after all...

"Right you are Ray," Fraser nodded and Ray cleared his mind of inappropriate thoughts. "Well, I'm glad we had that discussion." Fraser turned as Diefenbaker finally stirred from his slumber.

"Discussion?" Ray looked at his partner incredulously, "that wasn't a discussion?"

"I'm sorry Ray, but I find the subject matter rather, well, rather shallow I'm afraid," replied Fraser, slowing scratching at his left eyebrow with his fingertips.

Ray laughed. "Well I guess that's me!"

Fraser's brow furrowed. "No Ray, you misunderstand, I wasn't suggesting at all that you were..." but he didn't finish his sentence as a car raced past them, swerving onto their side of the road momentarily and leaving Ray no choice but to swerve himself to avoid it.

"Jeez!" yelled Ray, glancing back over his shoulder. "Moron!" he yelled.

"Aren't you going to pursue that vehicle?" Fraser asked, watching the car in the rear view mirror as it got further and further away.

"Fraser, we're not traffic cops," replied Ray, "and this baby's not up to a high speed chase on a road like this?" He patted the dashboard affectionately.

"But Ray..."

"But nothin' Fraser, I just wanna get home, OK? The local cops'll pick 'em up down the road," Ray had returned his attentions to the road ahead, but now Fraser was looking out of the back window. Suddenly he drew a sharp breath.

"Stop the car Ray," Fraser said urgently.

"I already told ya," sighed Ray, "leave it to the..."

"No Ray, you don't understand," Fraser turned back to look at his partner, his face grave, "you must turn around immediately, that automobile just skidded across the road and rolled down the embankment."

"Oh god no," said Ray as he carried out a perfect handbrake turn, sliding the GTO around and heading off in the direction they'd just come from. Fraser grabbed Ray's phone and called 911.

Ray skidded his car to a halt at the side of the road and leapt out. The other car was lying at a precarious angle, one wheel balanced on an uprooted tree. It was clear from the damage to the roof that it had rolled over at least once. It looks like a giant hand just crushed it like a toy, thought Ray as he raced down the embankment, almost stumbling over some dead vegetation in his hurry.

Fraser stopped to grab the first aid kit from the boot of the GTO and then headed after his partner. The vehicle had been travelling at some speed and Fraser knew there was a high probability that the driver would have sustained serious injuries. He was concerned to see Ray frozen to the spot by the side of the car, his hands on his hips. Oh dear, thought Fraser, bracing himself for an horrific scene. As he got closer to Ray, the blonde detective lifted his head to look at his partner. "Gone," he said.

Fraser sighed sadly. "The chances of survival in such a high speed accident are slim," he began, but Ray interrupted him.

"No buddy," Ray shook his head, "I mean gone, as in, er, there's no one in the car."

Fraser put the first aid kit on the ground and took a few steps so he was close enough to peer in through the smashed window of the driver's door. It wasn't that he didn't believe Ray of course, but it just seemed impossible. It had only been a matter of minutes since he'd observed the car spinning off the road. "Perhaps they were flung from the vehicle?" Fraser suggested, frowning as he looked around the area, but there was no sign of anyone among the smattering of arid bushes.

Ray pulled hard on the driver's door, but it was stuck fast, the buckled chassis of the car making it impossible to open. Then he ran round to the other side, looking for any clue as to what may have happened.

Fraser darted back a short distance towards the road, gaining some height as he started to climb the steep embankment. He looked down at Dief. "Can you pick up a trail?" he asked his wolf and Dief responded with a yap, bounding off to scratch about in the dry soil.

Fraser was about to call out to Ray, but instead he heard his partner's voice calling out to him. "Fraser quickly!" The Mountie headed back towards Ray. "There's a kid in the back!"

Fraser got to the car just as Ray had managed to get the back door open, using his foot for extra leverage. They saw a young boy, aged about eight or nine, his face covered in blood, strapped into the back seat with his head slumped against the pillar He was wearing a seatbelt, but his body was so small that it hadn't been able to fully restrain him as he was thrown around during the accident. Ray reached out a hand and placed two fingers on the boy's neck, hoping against all hope that he'd find a pulse. He really didn't want to deal with a dead child, it was a cop's worse nightmare and he could have prevented this, he thought to himself, if only he'd listened to Fraser. He gasped slightly and looked at his buddy with wide eyes. "He's alive Fraser!"

Ray moved out of the way to allow Fraser access. He began to carefully check the child's injuries and as he did so the boy stirred slightly, opened one eye and moaned. "It's alright," Fraser said in a low reassuring voice, "try to remain still, an ambulance is on it's way." Ray had already picked up the first aid kit and handed it to Fraser. "Ray," his buddy said, "please fetch a blanket."

"Sure," nodded Ray and ran to the GTO.

Fraser found a thick dressing in the first aid kit and pressed it firmly over the large gash on the child's forehead. The young boy moaned again and this time he opened both his eyes, although Fraser could tell he wasn't really focussing. "Sshhh," Fraser tried to soothe him. "Can you tell me your name?" he asked. He wasn't sure if the child would be able to answer.

"Mommy..." his voice was barely a whisper, but it brought a lump to Fraser's throat. The boy's mother was quite possibly the one driving the car, he thought, but how could he tell this young child, already frightened and in terrible pain, that she'd disappeared?

"Sshhh," said Fraser softly again as Ray returned with the blanket and carefully tucked it around the child. "What's your name son?" Fraser asked again, trying to keep the boy at least semi-conscious.

"Mmm..." the child tried to answer, "Mmm...Mikey," he finally managed to say.

"Alright Mikey," replied Fraser, smiling supportively, "my name's Constable..." he stopped, briefly glanced at Ray and instead he said, "my name's Ben."

Ray smiled, his buddy was finally learning how to talk to kids. It had taken a while.

"I need you to stay perfectly still," Fraser continued, "can you squeeze my hand?" He slipped his fingers into the boy's left hand and was relieved to feel a reasonable amount of pressure in response.

"The ambulance'll be here soon kid," said Ray, glancing back up to the road, hoping that it would be here sooner rather than later. He knew that Mikey was badly injured and he could see how concerned Fraser was.

"Mom..." Mikey was starting to become more distressed now.

"Hey Mikey," Ray leaned into the car and tried to help Fraser reassure him, "don't worry about your Mom OK?"

"Mikey," said Fraser gently, "I'm sorry, but I need you to keep as still as possible." Fraser carefully brought his other hand up and cradled Mikey's face, so now with his other hand still applying pressure to the head wound, he was able to hold the boys head in position.

"Can we get him outta there?" asked Ray, he really hated seeing him like this, "y"know, maybe make him more comfortable?"

Fraser turned his head away from Mikey and replied quietly. "I believe he may have suffered a spinal injury Ray, any attempt to move him at this juncture would be...inadvisable."

"Oh," replied Ray. He got it. Inadvisable, that meant bad...really bad, like fatal...or something worse. "I'll, er, go take a look around," he said, feeling that as Fraser seemed to be doing everything he could for the injured boy, the least he could do himself was try to find some trace of the kid's mother, or whoever it was who'd been driving the car and had now abandoned him to his fate. Fraser nodded in agreement, so Ray tried the front passenger door. With a bit of brute force it opened and Ray climbed inside, looking for anything that might be considered a clue. He was only assuming that it was the mother who'd been driving. They had no proof other than the agonised moaning of a severely injured little boy. Any kid in the same situation would cry out for his mother, Ray thought, it really meant nothing as far as any investigation was concerned.

Ray started to search the car, it was surprisingly clean, no signs of life at all. _Rental car_, Ray thought to himself. He pulled open the glove box and found nothing but a single folded piece of paper. He took it out carefully, holding just the top corner between his thumb and forefinger and shook it open. He'd been right. It was an invoice from a car hire place in central Chicago, not too far from the Two Seven, _so at least we got an angle to get involved_, he thought. Seeing poor young Mikey had made him promise to himself that he'd do whatever it took to bring whoever had done this to justice. Ray let a tiny laugh slip out at his last thought, he was starting to sound like Fraser. He refocused his attentions on the invoice. Paid in cash, he noted, probably fake details then. He sighed. _Well maybe a fingerprint can be pulled from it_, he thought as he slipped it into a plastic evidence bag.

He clambered across to the driver's seat, being careful not to touch the steering wheel. He could hear Fraser's voice talking softly to Mikey now, he was telling him a story. Ray smiled, poor kid survives a car crash only to be bored to death by an Inuit legend, he thought. Then his face fell, that wasn't even funny, Fraser was doing everything he could. Ray wouldn't have been nearly as calm in the same situation. He'd faced some pretty horrific things over the years and it never got any easier, but you found a way to deal with most things, you coped, you couldn't let everything get to you or you'd go crazy, but dead kids were...his thoughts trailed off and he shuddered. Mikey wasn't going to die, Ray had this feeling in his gut, he was a strong kid, he was going to be OK.

Ray stopped himself before he let his emotions take over again. He looked at the smashed glass of the door and spotted a small amount of blood on one of the jagged edges. More evidence, let forensics do their thing with that and hopefully they can match the DNA. What does the DNA of someone who leaves a child alone like this look like anyway? Ray had no idea what DNA even looked like, _but this sicko has to have pretty screwed up DNA_, he thought to himself. Mikey could have died and they'd just abandoned him, surely it wasn't his mother? Ray couldn't even begin to imagine what must have been going through her mind.

Ray's head snapped round at the sound of Fraser's voice, more urgent than his storytelling voice. "Ray, sirens," said Fraser, without taking his eyes off the injured boy.

Ray couldn't hear any sirens yet, but he replied with a quick, "OK," and ran up to the road to alert the approaching vehicles to their position.

xXx

"It took...what...twenty minutes for them to get him out," Ray was telling Francesca all about the events of that afternoon as they huddled over her computer with Fraser back at the station. "They, er, cut the roof off and took him out on one of those backboard things."

"He had to be stabilised first of course," Fraser explained "and because of the suspected spinal injury it was imperative that he was immobilised during the extraction."

Francesca tapped away at her keyboard and tried to imagine what she might have done if she'd been first on the scene of an accident like that. She hoped she would have been calm and practical and done all the right things, but in the back of her mind she had a feeling that she would have panicked.

"Yeah and that paramedic said something about a sub, er, sub, er, haema...wotsit, whatever that is," Ray could hear the words in his head, but he just couldn't get them out of his mouth. It got worse when he was agitated and right now he was anything but calm.

"Subdural haematoma," said Fraser, "I observed his symptoms worsening as we waited for help to arrive," Fraser stopped and closed his eyes briefly before continuing, "but he's in good hands now, they have some of the finest neurosurgeons..."

"Hey," Ray interrupted him, "c'mon, let's focus here. Let the, er, brain surgeons worry about the brain surgery. Hospital said they'd call if there was any news, so we gotta figure out who the kid is and who the hell ran off and left him in the back of a wrecked car. What've we got Frannie?"

"Sorry Ray," replied Francesca, "still nothing. His description's out there, but there's no match to any reports of missing boys. No reports of any other casualties showing up either."

"I figured they got cut pretty bad climbing outta that window in a hurry," said Ray, squinting at the screen as pages of missing children's details flashed up.

"Quite possibly," replied Fraser, "although Dief didn't find a trail of blood, suggesting that they were able to stem the flow quite quickly, so they most likely did not seek medical treatment."

The local Police had quickly arrived at the scene and Fraser and Ray had assisted with their preliminary investigation. Identifying Mikey and notifying his family of the child's condition was everyone's top priority. Obviously they also needed to trace the driver of the car and the car rental invoice that Ray had found at least gave them a lead to check out first thing in the morning. He wanted to get on this immediately, but they'd done all they could for now really. He couldn't shake the image of Mikey from his mind.

Ray sighed and Francesca spun her chair round, causing both Ray and Fraser to take a quick step backwards. "Why don't you guys go home," she smiled at them. "I'll keep on this for a couple more hours. Ma has her cousin Rosa helping her with the flowers for cousin Florentina's wedding at the weekend. Now, as much as I love flowers..." Francesca paused and pushed her hair behind her ear, smiling at Fraser, "especially when they're sent with love..."

Fraser cleared his throat and looked at the floor. Francesca had been desperately trying to engage him since they'd met, taking almost every opportunity to flirt outrageously with him. At one stage Fraser had seriously considered the prospect of pursuing a romance, but with hindsight he was glad they hadn't gone down that path. Especially now that the real Ray Vecchio was undercover on a long term assignment, Fraser's feelings towards his friend's sister had evolved into more like those of a sibling. Francesca's feelings, on the other hand, didn't appear to have changed at all.

"Can we, er, stay focussed here?" asked Ray, rolling his eyes.

Francesca finally broke her gaze from Fraser and looked at Ray. "I'm serious," she said, "go home, you guys look exhausted."

"Yeah," admitted Ray, "it's been a long day."

"Indeed," agreed Fraser.

Francesca hated to see them both so down like this. "Hey," she said, "y'know, if you wanna talk or anything? I mean, shall we go get a coffee or something?"

Fraser smiled. He appreciated the thought, but he really did want to go home and get some sleep. The brown uniform, while much less uncomfortable than the red serge, was still restrictive and as much as he was emphatically proud of his RCMP uniform and all it represented, it did feel good to take it off. "Thank you kindly Francesca, but perhaps another time."

"OK," said Francesca, "I'll call you if I hear anything from the hospital."

"Greatness," mumbled Ray, picking up his crumpled coat.

"You did good today," continued Francesca, "I guess it must have been pretty tough."

"It was not the most pleasant of experiences," agreed Fraser. He thought back to poor Mikey's cries of pain and took a deep breath.

"I, um, I don't think I can do it," said Francesca, sadly, "I don't know what I was thinking when I put my name down."

"Er, put your name down for what?" asked Ray with a frown.

"The Academy," replied Francesca. "I guess I thought it would be exciting, or something. Stupid really."

Fraser and Ray looked at each other. This was the first that either of them had heard about Francesca's ambition to be a Police officer. "Francesca," Fraser began, choosing his words carefully, "Police work can be...challenging, but also hugely rewarding." He wasn't sure if he should be encouraging her or not? He was fairly sure that Ray Vecchio would disapprove. He wasn't sure himself if he was entirely comfortable with the thought of Francesca making such a career choice.

"Yeah," agreed Ray, "that kid got out alive, thanks to Fraser here and now, y'know, now we go and bust whoever was drivin' that car and kick 'em in the head."

"You mean arrest them in order that they may face justice in accordance with the laws of your country," Fraser corrected him.

"Er, yeah," Ray smiled ruefully, "that. Whatever, it's gonna be sweet. I never knew ya wanted to be a cop Frannie?"

Francesca shrugged. "Neither did I," she laughed, "I guess not until I worked here, saw the things you did. Ray never really talked about it at home, I didn't really get it, why he became a cop I mean. I figured he only did it because he knew our Pa would hate it?"

"I believe his reasons ran far deeper than that," Fraser spoke with pride. Ray Vecchio was out there now, risking his life everyday working undercover in the heart of one of Chicago's most notorious organised crime families. He felt certain that his friend would not have taken that on simply to annoy his father.

"I guess ya should think it over or somethin'," Ray suggested to Francesca, "I mean, Police work is, er, ups and downs...right Fraser?"

"Indeed," agreed the Mountie, "there are huge rewards to be had."

Ray sniggered. "Er, yeah," he agreed, "but he's not talkin' about the paycheques Frannie!"


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

"Say that again?" Ray was waiting for a gap in the traffic outside the Consulate. The early morning sun was glaring in his eyes and he squinted as he spoke.

Fraser thought for a moment, staring at his hat on the dashboard of Ray's GTO. He'd had a very detailed discussion with Mikey's doctor at just after midnight, but he realised that Ray wasn't familiar with most of the medical terms. "They're going to keep him in a medically induced coma while his brain injury heals," Fraser explained.

"And the, er, what about his back?"

"The surgery went well, he'll need further surgeries of course, but for now at least the possibility of paralysis has been alleviated," Fraser replied.

"Greatness," nodded Ray solemnly, "now all the kid needs is his mom...unless she was the one that abandoned him? Then he, er, he does not need her."

"Ray, we should try to remember that even if his mother was the driver of the vehicle, she may have had very good reason to leave the scene of the accident," said Fraser calmly.

"Yeah?" snapped Ray, "name one Fraser, name one good reason."

"Ah," Fraser scratched at his eyebrow, "well..."

"See?"

They drove in silence the rest of the way to the station. Fraser was trying to remain calm, to keep his emotions in check, but he was concerned that when they did find out who it was who'd left Mikey in that wrecked car, he would be the one doing the head kicking. He smiled to himself. That would make for an interesting incident report, Ray being the one having to pull HIM off the malfeasant for a change, Ray having to tell him to breathe and calm down, telling him that it wasn't worth risking his career over this...yes, that would most certainly be a turn up for the books, as his grandmother used to say.

They walked into the squad room and Francesca waved them over to her desk. "Morning," she smiled at them. Well to be more accurate, she smiled at Fraser. "Forensics reports are starting to come in," she said, waving a fax at them. "Doesn't tell you much though," she sighed as Fraser took the piece of paper from her and scanned down the results.

"Hmmm..." Fraser's brow furrowed. Ray glanced at Francesca and rolled his eyes. They didn't need Fraser to go all 'hmmm' on them now. Fraser noticed Ray's face out of the corner of his eye. He looked up. "Sorry," he said, remembering how much his vocal ponderings annoyed his partner, "they tested the blood on the broken window and cross matched it with Mikey's DNA and the indication is that the driver of the vehicle is a relative of his."

"Jeez," Ray put his hands on his hips and stared at the floor, "so I guess it was his Mom?"

"Or his Dad?" offered Francesca.

Ray sighed as he took in the implications of that information. It would have been easier if the kid had been kidnapped by some paedo or something, he thought to himself. We catch the guy, lock him up and Mikey makes a full recovery with the help of his supportive, loving family. Yeah, that would have been easier.

"This is only the preliminary report," Fraser pointed out, "at this juncture there is not enough information to conclude that it was either of his parents."

"OK," Ray nodded, slightly buoyed by that, "Frannie, I guess we've still not got an identity yet? Nothin' come in overnight from out of town?"

Francesca shook her head. "I don't understand," she said, sadly, "surely someone would have reported him missing by now? His description is everywhere, probably even gone national by now."

"We should speak to the rental car place," said Ray, desperate to get outside and be doing something practical, "maybe they can give us a description of whoever rented that car."

"Yeah, but you need to be at the hospital for ten o'clock," said Francesca, handing Ray a scruffy handwritten note, "social worker needs to see you. Mikey's under some kind of emergency care order or something for now, they need your statement for the file I guess? Her name was Jessica..." Francesca tugged at the paper and read her own writing upside down, "Carreno."

"Yeah, thanks Frannie," Ray sneered sarcastically at her, "I can actually read yer writin'."

Francesca sneered back at him. "Just tryin' to be helpful bro," she replied, with an equal amount of sarcasm, "anyway, she sounded nice." At that moment the phone on Francesca's desk rang and she picked up the receiver.

Ray raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I'll, er, let ya know when I meet her," he said, rolling his eyes and heading towards the door. "Come on," he beckoned to Fraser, "pitter patter."

Fraser followed his partner, frowning slightly. "Why would you be surprised to learn that the social worker assigned to Mikey was anything other than nice?" he asked.

Ray pushed the door open slightly, but stopped and looked at his partner in the eye in disbelief. "Come on Fraser, you've worked with 'em before," he said, shaking his head, "these social workers are usually, y'know, dragons or somethin'. I mean, their job is supposed to be helpin' these kids, right?" Fraser nodded in response. "So why not let us do our job? Why all the, er, red tape and throwin' obstick...er, obstit..."

"Obstacles?" suggested Fraser.

"Yeah," agreed Ray, mentally kicking himself for floundering over words again. "Those. Why put those in the way all the time? We're on the same side?"

"The side of justice you mean?" asked Fraser and this time it was Ray's turn to nod. "Ray, I share your frustrations," Fraser continued, "but the regulations and procedures are there to protect minors..." he was about to launch into a lecture on the difficulties faced when two agencies were working together when he heard Francesca calling out.

"Frase, wait!" she said. They turned to see her replacing the telephone receiver and looked expectantly at her. "Front desk are sending up some guy, he just came in, says he's Mikey's father," Francesca explained.

Ray exchanged a glance with his partner. If this man was, indeed, Mikey's father then presumably he hadn't been driving the car...unless he'd come to give himself up? Ray tried to remember a breathing exercise Fraser had taught him once, he tried to do the calm thing that Fraser did so well. Damn, how did he do that? Ray had that image of Mikey in his head again, the one with blood running down his face. Breathe Kowalski, this isn't helping the kid, just breathe.

Just then the doors to the squadroom burst open and a man walked in, slightly out of breath. He was tall, with unkempt brown hair that made him look younger than he probably was. "I'm looking for Vecchio?" he said abruptly.

As Ray took a step forward, Francesca got up from her seat and opened her mouth to speak, earning her a glare from her pretend brother. "I'm Detective Vecchio," said Ray, emphasising his rank. Francesca skulked back down in her seat.

"Oh thank goodness," replied the man, flustered as he pulled a photograph from the pocket of his jeans, "this is my son, I think he's been in an accident? I heard it on the news...Mikey, his name's Mikey." He shoved the photo into Ray's hand.

Ray passed the photograph to Fraser. It was certainly the same boy. "Please step this way," said Fraser, indicating towards the interview rooms.

The man looked at Fraser, dressed in his red uniform. "Are you...are you a Mountie?" the man asked in disbelief.

"Yes," replied Fraser, offering his hand for a handshake, "Constable Benton Fraser, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, I first came to Chicago..."

"Fraser," Ray interrupted him, making the action of zipping his lips together with his thumb and forefinger.

"Ah," Fraser nodded, "Sir, please, we need to talk to you." Ray set off along the corridor with the man and Fraser behind.

"My son?" the man said to Fraser, urgently, "what's happened to my son? Where is he?"

Fraser held the door of Interview Room Two open and the man followed Ray inside. Fraser closed the door behind them. "Please, have a seat," he said and the man sat nervously in one of the chairs, with Ray sitting himself in the other, a disorganised jumble of arms and legs.

Fraser stood beside Ray. "I'm afraid you are correct," he began, trying to keep his voice even, "your son was involved in a vehicle accident. He is currently in a serious, but stable condition in hospital."

"Serious but stable? What does that mean exactly?" the man asked, his voice rising in panic.

"You really should discuss this with your son's doctors," began Fraser, but at the sight of the man's pleading eyes, he went on to explain what had happened.

All the colour drained from the man's face. "Lisa?" he half whispered, "is Lisa OK?"

"Who's Lisa?" asked Ray, sitting forward now with his hands resting on the table in front of him.

"My...my wife," replied the man in a shaky voice, "I mean, ex-wife...I mean, no, we're not divorced...yet...is she...is she..."

"Do you know for certain that your wife was driving your son somewhere yesterday afternoon at approximately three fifteen?" asked Fraser.

"Do I..." the man's breathing had become shallow as the shock was beginning to hit him, "Mikey was with Lisa yesterday. He should have...he should have been with me, but I had this thing at...at work that I couldn't get out of...Lisa said it was OK, she said I could swap one of my days next week instead...we do that y'know, we try to be flexible, we're trying...for Mikey, we're trying to be sensible, we don't want to get the courts involved or anything. It works, we don't hate each other or anything..." the man stopped suddenly, aware that he was rambling. He stood up suddenly and looked at Fraser.

"What's happened to my wife? I tried calling her earlier but she didn't answer. Where's Mikey? I have to see my son..." he gasped a breath as his head started to spin.

Fraser put a steadying hand on his shoulder. "May I suggest that you remain seated," he said and the man slumped back down onto the chair.

"Look, er..." Ray began, "um, what's your name anyway? Show me some ID."

"B...B...Brett," stammered the man, pulling his wallet out of his pocket with a shaky hand, "Brett Reitman." He pulled out his driving licence and showed it to Ray.

"OK look, Mr, er, Reitman, we found Mikey in the car after it overturned, but there was no one else," Ray explained, "your wife wasn't in the car, she'd gone by the time we got there."

"Gone?" Reitman didn't understand.

"The driver had left the scene of the accident," Fraser clarified, "leaving your son injured in the vehicle."

Reitman's face was now as white as a sheet. "Why?" he whispered, "Lisa wouldn't have just left him? Maybe she...she probably went to get help? Did you search for her?"

"Of course we did," snapped back Ray, "we even had a wolf on the case."

"Unfortunately it appears that whoever was driving the car at the time of the accident does not want us to find them," said Fraser. "I'm sorry to have to ask you this Sir," he continued, "but can you confirm your whereabouts yesterday afternoon?"

Brett Reitman looked up at him, slightly shocked at the implication. "Yes," he replied, "I was on the stupid training course, there are, um, eight other candidates who can vouch for me...you don't think that I'd just leave my son like that do you?"

"We have to follow all possible lines of enquiry at this juncture," replied Fraser, trying to pacify the man.

"We'll check out your alibi," said Ray.

"What?" the man was getting agitated now, "you think I'm lying?"

"Not at all Sir," replied Fraser, "but we would be remiss in our duty if we didn't confirm your statements."

The man wasn't placated enough by this. "I could never do that to my son?" he continued, getting to his feet now, "and neither could Lisa? Why aren't you people out there looking for her instead of asking me stupid questions?"

"Sir, please remain seated," Fraser said with authority, "with respect, until a few moments ago we were unaware of your son's identity."

"Well you know now?" snapped back the man, pointing an angry finger at the Mountie. Fraser didn't even flinch.

"OK that's it," Ray was on his feet now, "cool it pal."

"Don't tell me to cool it?" Reitman redirected his aggression towards Ray now. Ray took two steps forward until he was inches away from the man.

"Mr Reitman," Fraser spoke calmly, eager to diffuse the brewing confrontation, "I can assure you that every available resource will now be utilised in tracing your wife and determining the circumstances of the accident."

Reitman took two deep breaths and looked at the floor. "I'm sorry," he said, quietly, "please...please I want to see my son."

Fraser nodded. "We will take you to the hospital," he said opening the door and Ray nodded too, somewhat reluctantly. "Detective Vecchio and I have an appointment with a social worker to discuss your son at the hospital this morning."

"A social worker?" Reitman looked even more worried, "why? Why are there social workers involved?"

They headed out into the squadroom again as Ray answered. "Mikey was abandoned, no one reported him missin', this is the kinda thing social workers get involved in." He suddenly began to feel more sorry for Brett Reitman. If he was telling the truth and Ray's instincts were telling him that he was, then he was already scared enough with his son being so seriously ill, without the social workers buzzing around. Social workers took kids away from their parents, everyone knew that, he'd seen it happened before and if Mikey's parents were in the process of getting divorced, maybe they had been neglecting their son? Maybe Lisa Reitman let him out of her sight and someone took him? Ray shook his head, he was getting way ahead of himself, they had no clue really as to what had happened yet. Fraser would give him one of those disapproving looks if he knew Ray was inventing all of these scenarios without a single shred of evidence.

They left Francesca with all the information that Brett Reitman had told them and she set about arranging for uniformed officers to visit Lisa Reitman's house and to speak to the people who could corroborate her soon to be ex-husband's alibi.

Ray drove to the hospital and before they got there Francesca called to confirm that Brett's ID and his alibi both checked out. Fraser had felt sure anyway that he'd been telling the truth, but he wasn't able to trust his instincts the way that Ray did. He envied his partner in that regard, Ray could impulsively act on his feelings, but Fraser always needed something more, something solid that he could touch, or see, or taste. He wished he could trust himself more, but he'd been wrong before, with catastrophic consequences so how could he? How could he trust his feelings when his feelings had...Fraser stopped before he visited a place in his head that he didn't want to go to. Brett Reitman had been telling the truth, Francesca had evidence to prove it, that was all that was important.

When they got to the hospital a nurse took Brett to the paediatric intensive care unit where his son was being cared for. Fraser and Ray headed to the meeting room to talk to the social worker. Brett would have to talk to her too of course, but first of all he needed to see his son and discuss his medical situation with the team of doctors. Fraser knocked on the door and politely waited until he heard a quiet "come in" before entering the room with Ray close behind. A petite blonde haired woman got to her feet and extended her hand. As first Fraser and then Ray shook it, introducing themselves as they did so, the delicate silver bracelet that adorned her slim wrist slipped down onto her hand and she had to shake it back into it's proper place. "Jessica Carreno," she smiled at them, her nerves obvious as she spoke.

Instinctively, Ray flashed her a smile. He was on edge, but she seemed equally as uncomfortable. Besides, she was pretty, not at all like the old dragon he was expecting. She seemed to appreciate the gesture.

They sat at the table and updated Jessica with the information about Mikey's identity and his family. Francesca telephoned in the middle of the discussion with more details and Jessica noted everything down meticulously. They were piecing together events now, but there was still no sign of Lisa Reitman, Mikey's mother. The Chicago PD had officers out looking for her, if she had been the driver of the car then there was a possibility that she was injured, perhaps unable to call for help even if she wanted to.

A short while later, a nurse brought Brett Reitman into the room. He looked shellshocked, thought Ray, clearly he'd been crying. "Er, how's Mikey?" Ray asked, gingerly.

Brett managed a small smile. "He's OK," he replied, "they say we just have to wait now, but the doctor sounded quite positive. He looks..." his voice trailed off for a moment and he forced some composure back into his face, "he looks awful, there's all these machines, the ventilator and...well I don't really know, the doctor tried to explain, but..."

Fraser nodded. "He's in good hands," he said, "brain injuries take time to heal."

"They say if you hadn't been there, if you hadn't..." Brett shook Fraser firmly by the hand, "thank you." Then he turned to Ray and gave him an equally firm handshake. Ray felt slightly awkward, he couldn't help feeling that if he hadn't dismissed Fraser's initial attempts to stop the speeding car, maybe the accident wouldn't have happened in the first place. Or perhaps a high speed Police chase would have ended even more catastrophically, who knows...Ray was learning not to look back and play the 'what if' or 'if only' game. It wasn't good for his head.

Fraser looked embarrassed, "I'm glad we could help," he said.

"I'm Jessica Carreno," the social worker introduced herself, "I'm in charge of your son's case." Brett couldn't say anything, he wasn't sure what to say for the best, so he just nodded. "Shall we sit?" Jessica continued, "I know this is a difficult time for you Sir, but I do have to ask you some questions."

Brett silently took a seat.

"We should probably leave?" said Fraser, aware that some of the questions Brett would be required to answer may be very personal.

"No," the man said, urgently, "please, if you don't mind, I'm not sure I can do this alone? I'm sorry..." he looked as Jessica, "perhaps...I mean, can't we do this tomorrow? I'm sorry, my wife's still missing, my head's just spinning..."

Jessica looked at him with sympathetic eyes and glanced at Fraser. "I appreciate that this is difficult, but at the moment your son has been made a temporary ward of the city, he's under an emergency care order. We had to do that in order for his medical treatment to continue, permission for the surgery had to be given and there were other legalities that had to be dealt with. You do understand what that means, don't you?"

Brett sighed. "It means you want to take our son away from us," he said in a half whisper.

"No," replied Jessica firmly, "that's not what I want at all, I want what's best for your son, for your family, as I know that you do...however the longer the current situation remains, the harder it will be for you. At the moment, this is being treated as a case of neglect."

Brett hung his head. "I need to find my wife, I'm sure this can be sorted out, something terrible must have happened to her..." his voice cracked.

"The Chicago PD are all over that," said Ray, trying to give him some encouragement, "look, I think ya should do this now, if ya want Fraser to stay..." he glanced at his partner, who gave a tiny nod of affirmation, "he's good with stuff like this, I could go to the car rental place, I don't think anyone's paid them a visit yet."

"Right you are," agreed Fraser and Jessica didn't have a problem with Fraser sitting in, so Ray left them to it, flashing another smile at her as he left. _Fraser's gonna think I've lost my mind,_ he thought as he headed out to the car, _grinning like an idiot at a woman...a social worker no less. Maybe I've got a, oh what is that thing, I read about it in a magazine once, makes you go all screwy over girls, imbalance of something or other? Yeah that's it, I'm imbalanced._


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

"That description certainly matches the photograph of Lisa that her husband gave us," Fraser poured coffee for Ray and tea for himself as he spoke.

"Yeah," agreed Ray, following his buddy from the kitchen at the Consulate to the main reception room. "The car rental guy couldn't give me anythin' else though? CCTV is busted, so that's all I got."

"Well it's something," said Fraser, setting the cups down on the coffee table and shooing Dief from the sofa. "Oh don't give me that look?" Fraser reprimanded the wolf. "I know Turnbull has been feeding you while we were away. By the looks of you, I presume nothing but junk food." Dief made a low throaty growling noise, but Fraser wasn't going to get into an argument with him, so he chose to ignore the animal's colourful choice of lupine adjectives.

"How did Reitman get on?" Ray asked, tipping a handful of coloured chocolates into his coffee.

"I thought he was remarkably stoic under the circumstances," replied Fraser, "although it helped that Miss Carreno was magnanimous in her approach."

"She's pretty cool," agreed Ray, trying not to make eye contact with his buddy. "Um, I guess ya got her number, er, so if we need to call her about the case, y'know, we can."

"Of course," replied Fraser, looking at Ray with a slightly puzzled look. "You've certainly changed your tune," he continued, "this morning you were determined to keep the social workers at as far a distance as possible from our investigation?"

Ray shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about Jessica since he'd left the hospital. She was pretty, tiny and delicate, not just physically, but he'd had an overwhelming desire to protect her, from what he wasn't sure though. He figured she could probably handle herself just fine if she had to, she must have had difficult and confrontational situations in her line of work before. He wondered how she dealt with those? He really want to ask her, actually he wanted to ask her a lot of questions about herself he realised. This was silly, he'd talked to her for about an hour about a kid that had been in an accident, that wasn't long enough to really get feelings for a person was it? When he'd left the hospital, his feelings hadn't been this strong anyway? He'd certainly acknowledged to himself that she was attractive and he'd admired her ability to maintain professionalism while still having empathy for the family involved.

"Ray, Ray, Ray, RAY!" Fraser waved his hand in front of his friend's face. "You appear to have become rather distant, are you alright? Did you hear what I was saying about Mr Reitman?"

"Er, yeah, I mean, no, er, sorry Fraser, I was just thinking..." Ray's voice trailed off and he took another sip of his tea.

"About Jessica Carreno?" Fraser said, looking directly at Ray.

Ray smiled and looked away. He should have known Fraser would see straight through him. "Forget it Fraser," he said, "I'm just bein' dumb."

"Understood," replied Fraser.

Really, of course, Ray didn't want to forget it at all. He wanted to talk. "Y'know Fraser, Annie Bartlett, our kidnap victim's sister, she had the hots for me didn't she. I mean, she actually did, I wasn't, er, imaginin' it or nothin'? She wasn't goin' all gooey over you, like they usually do was she?"

"Gooey?" queried Fraser, tugging at his left earlobe. "I am inclined to agree with you about Miss Bartlett though, I take it those feelings aren't reciprocated?"

"If ya mean am I interested in her too, then no, I guess I'm not," sighed Ray, "but, um, it's nice to know that, er, well that I'm not totally past it yet."

Fraser frowned. "Past what exactly?"

Ray laughed. "It, Fraser, like, um, I've still got a chance of meeting someone who would actually be, er, interested in me?"

"Ah," replied Fraser, as he began to understand what Ray was talking about.

"Don't 'ah' me Fraser, not now," snapped Ray, only half joking.

"I'm terribly sorry," Fraser looked apologetically at Ray. He really wasn't very good at these types of conversations. Ray was prepared to put his feelings out there for his buddy to see and he wanted Fraser to analyse and offer an opinion on them, but Fraser was never quite sure how far he should go. Actually he was acutely aware of Ray's low self esteem. His divorce from Stella had hit him hard, leaving him feeling that he had no hope of ever finding romance again. Fraser had tried before to help him, tried to make him look at himself in a more positive way, but sometimes it just wasn't enough.

"Hey," Ray slapped his partner on the back, "c'mon," he grinned, "forget it, I'm not in the mood. Finish that tea and we'll head over to Lisa Reitman's place, maybe one of the, er, neighbours might have somethin' for us. Information or somethin'?"

Fraser drained his cup and stood up, "An excellent idea," he looked down at Dief who was dozing on the rug. "Are you coming, or is the prospect of doing some actual Police work too tiring to contemplate?"

Dief yapped. "I think yer sarcasm is lost on the wolf," shrugged Ray. He really wasn't at all convinced that Diefenbaker understood a word Fraser said to him, although occasionally Dief would do something that made him doubt that theory.

Diefenbaker leapt up and bounded towards the door. Fraser couldn't help a small smile to himself and he and Ray followed him outside.

XxX

Fraser leafed through a pile of paperwork at Lisa Reitman's house. It was mainly bills, nothing overdue though, she appeared to be on top of her finances. The Police had already searched the house and found nothing, but Ray suggested that they take a look for themselves now, just in case there was something that had been missed. Dief was in the kitchen, looking for clues, at least that's what he'd told Fraser.

Ray was looking at a selection of framed photographs that were lined up neatly on the dresser. "She's still got some of Brett," he said.

Fraser looked over to his partner and raised his eyebrows questioningly. "He is her son's father and therefore still very much part of the family," he said, "Brett suggested that the dissolution of their marriage has been very amicable up until now."

Ray nodded sadly. "Stella got rid of all our photos," he said with a sigh, "she said she needed closure, or some crap like that. She could've, um, given them all to me, right? I mean, I coulda shoved them in a closet, or somethin' if she didn't want them at her place? We had some good times Fraser."

"Some people take comfort in their memories at times of difficulty Ray, while others prefer to forget," Fraser said wistfully. He hardly any photographs of his parents and everyday he would spend time focussing on his mother's face, embedding that image into his mind to make sure that he never, ever, forgot her.

Then there was the one photograph he still had of Victoria. After everything that had happened he'd almost thrown it on the fire, but he simply wasn't able to do that. Wasn't strong enough maybe? If he could just forget about her then the pain would go surely? Why couldn't he do that? Had there been any good times with Victoria...yes there had, he admitted to himself, he could still hear her voice, he could still taste her...no, he never wanted to forget.

"I guess," shrugged Ray, snapping Fraser's mind back to the task in hand. "OK, so, um, there's nothin' here is there, she didn't leave in a hurry, she didn't take her passport, but she hasn't been back. It doesn't make sense."

"Things do seem to be in order," agreed Fraser. This was completely puzzling. "So it would appear that Lisa Reitman rented a vehicle and drove her son out of town at high speed, then after crashing the car, abandoned her son with life threatening injuries. None of which matches the profile of the woman that we've established by talking to her estranged husband or, indeed, by observing her home."

Ray was about to voice his frustrations when they heard a voice. "Hello? Who's there?" A rather frail looking old lady appeared in the doorway. "Who are you?" she asked, suspiciously, waving a walking stick in their general direction.

"We're the Police ma'am," replied Fraser, with a reassuring smile, "there's no need to be alarmed."

Ray moved his jacket aside, displaying his badge attached to his belt. The woman visibly relaxed a little. "We're lookin' for Lisa Reitman," explained Ray. "Are you a, er, a neighbour or somethin'?"

"Yes dear," replied the woman, "I'm Edie York, I live next door. I'm afraid I haven't seen Lisa or young Mikey since yesterday morning."

"Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP," began Fraser, "If it's not too much of an inconvenience Mrs York, Detective Vecchio and I have some questions we'd like to ask you."

"Of course young man," the woman smiled warmly at Fraser "I've just baked a lemon cake, perhaps you'd care for some?"

"I thought I could smell lemon cake," replied Fraser, as he took her elbow and helped her out of the room, "that sounds most delicious, doesn't it Ray?"

Ray hated lemon cake. "Yeah," he grimaced, then Diefenbaker, alerted by the mention of cake...his selective deafness seemed to let words such as 'cake' get through...came bounding out into the hallway.

Mrs York squealed with fright and Dief immediately realised what he'd done and sat by Ray, making himself look far less menacing. "I'm so terribly sorry," said Fraser, apologetically as he released her surprisingly strong grasp from his arm, "this is Diefenbaker, he won't hurt you."

"Oh, a Police dog!" exclaimed Mrs York, "well why didn't you say so dear?" She slowly leaned forward and patted him on the head. "Good doggie," she said, smiling. Dief suppressed a growl and caught Fraser's look. He knew that look, it was the human's 'please be nice' look. Dief knew if he complied he was usually rewarded and besides, there was still the promise of lemon cake so he allowed the old lady to fuss over him. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a mint, offering it to the wolf. Dief hated mints more than Ray hated lemon cake, but he lapped it out of her hand anyway, as Fraser gave him a thumbs up sign.

"Mrs York you really shouldn't spoil him," chuckled Fraser, he knew Dief was going to be so mad with him, but he'd deal with it later. He realised that if Mrs York had spotted them in the house then she was most likely the type of neighbour who knew what was going on at other people's houses, so she may well have some useful information.

Mrs York ushered them into her living room. It was far more cluttered than Lisa Reitman's, with hundreds of photographs on her mantelpiece, many of them black and white and there were ornaments and figurines adorning every spare space. There was a crocheted lace doily on the arm of each chair and some work in progress knitting was lying on the sofa. It reminded Ray of his maternal grandmother's house, it even smelled the same. Why do old people all smell the same, he thought to himself.

Mrs York dismissed Fraser's offer of assistance and went to make them some tea. Ray stood by the window. "She's got a pretty good view of Lisa's front door from here," he said. "If she's anything like my old nan, she'll have a, er, mental timetable of who went in and out yesterday."

"I'm hoping that will be the case," agreed Fraser. He ran his finger along the top of a picture frame that hung over the sofa. "Hmmm..." he said, studying his finger tip.

Ray didn't get a chance to ask him what he was hmmm-ing about this time as Mrs York walked unsteadily back into the room, carrying a battered silver tray with cups and cake.

Fraser rushed to help her. "Allow me," he said and took the tray in one hand, while steadying the woman with the other."

"Thank you dear," she said, her eyes looking sadder than they had before, "I'm not supposed to walk without my stick, but how am I meant to carry things?"

"It's certainly a quandary," agreed Fraser, placing the tray on the coffee table. "I presume you have someone come in and help you sometimes?"

Mrs York allowed Ray to support her as she lowered herself into a chair. "Yes, young Lisa usually comes to see me every morning," she explained, "she's a lovely girl, she does most of my housework for me and makes sure that I have everything I need."

"That's very kind of her," said Fraser, taking a seat on the couch, "she does an excellent job."

"I'm very lucky," conceded Mrs York, "she keeps my house clean, just the way I like it, I just can't do the things I used to do," she sighed, "you'll know what I mean one day."

Ray shuddered. He couldn't imagine what it must be like to be old like Mrs York. She was clearly still compost ment...oh what was that expression Fraser used again? Ray couldn't remember, it was Spanish or something...her mind was still sharp anyway. It must be so frustrating to have your body failing around you and not be able to do one thing about it, Ray thought. Still, he had a gun, when the time was right...

"Lemon cake, young man?" Mrs York's voice brought Ray back to the present.

"Oh, er, just a small piece, thanks," he said, patting his midriff, "can't afford to, y'know..." he was making excuses, Ray could probably have eaten the whole cake and not added even half an inch to his waistline. Mrs York enthusiastically handed around slices of cake.

"Thank you kindly," Fraser balked slightly at the huge slice on his plate. "So did Lisa visit you yesterday morning?" he asked, keen to get back to the investigation.

"Yes she did," replied Mrs York, placing a slice of cake on the floor for Diefenbaker who had been waiting patiently for his reward. "She did some dusting and ironing for me."

"Was she OK?" asked Ray, "I mean, did she seem like there was anythin' wrong?"

"No dear," replied Mrs York, as she poured tea from the china teapot, "she was her usual bright self. She's a breath of fresh air in my life, I can tell you and her boy, young Mikey, he's full of energy, they keep me young."

"I'm sorry to have to tell you, but Mikey was in a serious car accident yesterday," Ray explained, "he's in the hospital, brain damage and, er, other stuff."

Mrs York dropped her plate and it fell to the ground with a crash, sending cake crumbs all over the carpet. "Oh my!" she exclaimed.

Immediately Fraser was kneeling in front of her, gathering up the mess with one hand and steadying her trembling arm with the other. "I'm so sorry, we didn't mean to shock you," he said, gently.

"Yeah, sorry," mumbled Ray, mentally kicking himself in the head for not softening the blow a little.

"Is he...is he going to be alright?" asked Mrs York in a shaky voice.

"At the moment he's doing as well as can be expected," replied Fraser, "but I'm afraid he does have some rather serious injuries. His father is with him at the hospital and the doctors are cautiously optimistic."

"Oh..." the old lady's face was very pale now. "Lisa...what about Lisa?"

"Sip your tea," Fraser suggested, scooping two spoonfuls of sugar into her cup before handing it to her. "I'm sorry, but Lisa is currently missing." He didn't feel the need to go into any more details of the circumstances surrounding the accident. "Did Lisa say what her plans were after she left you yesterday morning?" he asked.

"Missing? She said that she was going to take Mikey to see a movie," replied Mrs York, concern etched on her already wrinkled face, "she wasn't expecting to have him at all yesterday, he was meant to be spending the day with his father, but there was a last minute change of plan I think. Such a shame...they were a lovely couple. People don't take their marriage vows seriously these days, in my day there was none of this 'falling out of love' nonsense, marriage was for life, through thick and thin, just like me and my Harry. Young people don't realise how lucky they are until it's taken away from them..."

Ray let out a deep sigh at her words as she slowly reached across and picked up a framed photograph from the side, handing it to Fraser who had taken up a position on the sofa next to her. "This was our wedding day," she smiled, "sixty one years we were married."

"Wow," said Ray, "er, greatness."

"You looked radiant," smiled Fraser, handing her back the photograph, "as you still do of course."

Mrs York blushed a little. "Oh stop it young man," she said, placing the frame back on the side.

"Do you know if Brett Reitman visits the house regularly?" asked Ray, he knew she would know.

"Oh yes dear," she replied, "he and Lisa spend more time together now that they're separated I think." She laughed a little and then lowered her voice, "between you and me, I think Lisa is regretting it already, breaking up I mean. I think they had a silly fight the other day though, Lisa made one or two comments about it, but I hope they get back together, for the sake of little Mikey, if nothing else."

Fraser didn't like to point out that sometimes it was better for the child if the parents were apart, as a bad relationship could be so destructive for all involved, so instead he just nodded and smiled. He glanced at Ray who had also picked up on the detail about Mikey's parents fighting though, as he raised his eyebrows in a 'could be important' gesture. Fraser gave a tiny nod of acknowledgement.

Suddenly Mrs York let out a groan and bent forward slightly. "Mrs York?" Fraser said urgently, "are you alright?" He put an arm around her shoulders and looked at Ray with concern.

"Yes..." Mrs York took a shallow breath, "yes I'm fine and please, call me Edie. It's just a touch of indigestion, it's the lemon you see, I really shouldn't...but it was one of Harry's favourite recipes..."

"I understand," replied Fraser, arranging some flowery cushions behind her and trying to make her more comfortable. "Take some slow breaths, do you have any antacid medication?"

"Lisa was going to get me some yesterday, but she didn't come back," explained Mrs York, "it's not like her...I should have known something was wrong when she raced off like that. She's normally such a careful driver, she smashed her lovely wishing well."

Fraser glanced at Ray again who was rolling his eyes now. They'd been here half an hour already and he too was feeling a little uncomfortable after the lemon cake, why on earth hadn't Mrs York mentioned this detail before. "Raced off?" he queried, "in her own car ya mean?"

"Of course dear," nodded Mrs York, "I just assumed they were running late for the movie theatre..."

"Did you happen to see any other vehicles outside the house yesterday?" enquired Fraser, fishing something out of one of the pockets of his tunic. "A light blue station wagon perhaps?"

Mrs York thought for a moment and shook her head.

"Here," said Fraser, unwrapping some brown paper from a small package and lifting the old lady's hand to drop something into her palm. "Place this on your tongue and allow it to dissolve, it will help to alleviate your indigestion." Mrs York looked at the murky green misshapen capsule in her hand and then followed Fraser's instructions.

Ray winced as he imagined what it might taste like and worse, what it was made of. "OK Fraser, I guess we should get back to the station, um, see if anyone's traced Lisa's car yet." Ray quickly palmed the remainder of his slice of lemon cake to a grateful Diefenbaker and tipped his half drunk tea into the nearest pot plant, while Mrs York was still distracted by Fraser.

"Agreed," nodded Fraser, "now will you be alright Mrs Yor...er, Edie, or would you like me to call someone?"

"No, no dear, I'll be just fine," Mrs York tried to smile through her discomfort, "you've been so kind to me already, please, you should be out there looking for Lisa."

"If you think of anything else at all, even if you don't think it's relevant, please telephone this number," said Fraser, hastily writing the number of the Two Seven on the page of a spiral bound notebook that lay next to the woman's telephone, "or I can be reached at the Canadian Consulate." He wrote that other telephone number down too and then picked up his hat and glared at Dief who was almost asleep again. "Thank you kindly for your time and for the delicious cake," he smiled Mrs York, "please don't get up, we can see ourselves out."

"Yeah, um, thanks," nodded Ray, following Fraser and a reluctant Dief towards the front door, "you've been a great help and the, er, the cake was, um, greatness."

As they got into the GTO, Ray could practically see Fraser's mind going over the conversation with Mrs York. "So?"

Fraser frowned at Ray. "So...I'm not sure what you're saying Ray?"

Ray sighed. "So, what d'ya think? The Reitmans get along great, except they just had a fight and then Lisa thinks she's in the Indy Five Hundred? Somethin's queer."

"Indeed," agreed Fraser.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Later that afternoon they were back at the Consulate going over some information that they'd collected from Francesca. She'd got background information on Brett and Lisa and she'd spoken to Mikey's school principal. None of it seemed to be of any relevance though. There hadn't been any sightings of Lisa's car either. Ray sighed. "We're gettin' nowhere Fraser," he said despondently.

Fraser was about to reluctantly agree with his partner when there was a knock at the door. Dief yapped as Fraser got up to answer it. He was surprised to see Jessica Carreno standing there. "Come in, welcome to Canada," he said as the young social worker stepped in.

"I hope you don't mind me turning up like this," she said, "but I called the precinct and I was told that you and Ray, um, Detective Vecchio might be here, so as it's on my way home..."

"Hey, course we don't mind, do we buddy?" a smiling Ray had joined them in the hallway now, the sound of her voice had immediately drawn his attention.

"Please come through," agreed Fraser, indicating towards the reception room with his hand.

"Thank you," Jessica replied, answering Fraser but still maintaining eye contact with Ray.

"Allow me to take your coat," Fraser offered and she handed him her light green jacket, wafting the gentle fragrance of her perfume past Ray as she did so.

"I've just come from the hospital," explained Jessica, "I was sitting with Brett for a while, he won't leave his son's bedside you know, the nurses are worried about him, I tried talking to him, you know, to see if I could persuade him to go home and get a couple of hours' sleep, but..." Her voice trailed off sadly.

"Hey," Ray flashed her another smile, "ya did yer best, he doesn't wanna leave his kid, it's understandable, it was, um, real good of ya to try though."

Jessica smiled a little too now. "Thanks," she acknowledged. "He's a bit of a mess, I guess he'll be happier once his wife is found." Fraser and Ray both nodded in agreement. "Anyway," Jessica continued, "while we were talking he told me some things about his wife, about his marriage and things like that. I didn't know if any of it might be important to your investigation, so I thought I'd tell you while the details were still fresh in my mind."

Ray took out his notebook and started scribbling down everything Jessica told them. Brett and Lisa had separated just over four months ago and he had been staying with his brother Josh ever since. There was no one else involved, but they'd been arguing a lot, over little things mainly and come to realise that they wanted different things out of life. Brett had been upset over how easily Lisa seemed to have adjusted to single life, whereas he'd spent the first couple of months drowning his sorrows with his brother.

"I think he's a bit worried about his brother actually," said Lisa, "he was asking me for advice about alcoholism. I probably shouldn't be telling you this. I think his brother has been in trouble in the past? I suggested he should find somewhere more permanent to live, I don't think living with his brother is a very good environment for him to be in right now. I think he's holding onto the hope that he can get back together with his wife though."

Ray looked pensive. He'd held onto hope that he would get back with Stella for far too long and it had nearly destroyed him. Every waking moment he would think about her. He'd even followed her around, he couldn't even explain to himself why he'd done that, but he just wanted to be near her, to see what she was doing, to keep her safe, it all sound so ridiculous now. Then he'd speak to her at every opportunity, even though he knew she'd say something that would upset him in return. Stella's way of dealing with her pain was to take it out on Ray, or on anyone else who dared to cross her. It had taken Ray a long time to realise that, but now things were good between them. _As good as they're ever going to get anyway_, he sighed to himself.

Fraser went over the things Jessica had told them in his mind. Mrs York had also suggested Lisa may be regretting separating from Brett. They appeared to have had an amicable a break up as was possible, although there was mention again of small arguments. Brett hadn't mentioned his brother before either, although there hadn't really been an opportunity for the subject to arise. They should probably speak to Josh Reitman though, first thing in the morning as he may have some information.

"Thank you kindly Miss Carreno," said Fraser, "it was very thoughtful of you to console Mr Reitman and thank you for the information. We will of course be discreet with our enquiries, I understand that he was discussing these things with you in confidence, however something may be pertinent to the investigation so I appreciate your decision to pass this information on."

"Yeah," agreed Ray, "ya did the right thing."

Jessica smiled at Ray and blushed slightly. "Thanks," she said. "I just want to do what I can to help them. It was so hard watching poor Mikey, just lying there in that hospital bed. The doctors say he's doing well, but..." her voice cracked and couldn't say any more.

Ray instinctively put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. "He's a tough kid I think," said Ray, trying to reassure her. Jessica pulled away from him a little and smiled at him.

Fraser looked at his partner. Ray had an odd look on his face, he was concerned that there was something wrong, perhaps...oh, suddenly it dawned on the Mountie, the look on Ray's face...well in that case he should make himself scarce, he thought.

"Well," he announced, leaping to his feet and gathering up the cups. "I'll take these to the kitchen and then, um, I really must..." he turned on his heels and looked at the door, as if it might give him some inspiration. He was terrible at lying, but he really wanted to make an excuse and leave Ray and Jessica alone. He spun back to face them and saw Dief, his head on Jessica's lap, enjoying some petting behind the ears. "Diefenbaker!" He exclaimed, louder than was necessary, "I believe that a Canadian citizen requires Consular assistance, several blocks from here," he glanced at Ray, the guilt almost too much to bear now, even if this was for his friend's benefit, "and, um, we should immediately attend...immediately...we'll walk, you could do with the exercise, you are woefully out of shape again."

Dief lifted his head and looked at Fraser. He really wished his lupine features allowed him a wider range of expressions, because right now he was feeling sarcasm and disdain. He settled for a long, deep growl instead. Fraser got the message and looked apologetically at his wolf. Dief made a mental note to make him pay and pay and pay later.

Ray caught his eye and couldn't help the small smile that twitched the corner of his mouth when he realised what his buddy was trying to do. "How long are ya gonna be?" he asked hopefully.

"How long?" Fraser's mouth opened and closed as he tried to think, "um, around, er, possibly about..."

Ray grinned at his buddy. "I'll send ya a smoke signal, er, if there's any news about Lisa I mean."

"Ray that method of communication would be extremely dangerous in a built up area," noted Fraser, frowning.

"I was kiddin' buddy," Ray shook his head.

Fraser's face brightened. "Ah," he said and walked out of the room with Dief following reluctantly behind, growling quietly.

Jessica and Ray continued talking about the Reitmans for a few minutes and then they heard the door slam loudly as the Mountie and his faithful wolf left the Consulate. Jessica smiled at Ray. "So what's it like working with a Mountie?" she asked.

"Fraser?" Ray smiled ruefully. _That would be right_, he thought, _she's only interested in the Mountie. Don't make an idiot of yourself Kowalski_. "He's Canadian," he said dismissively, "he, er, first came to Chicago chasin' the guy that murdered his Dad and he stayed for, um, some weird reasons." Ray laughed now, slightly embarrassed. "He tells that story kinda better than I do."

Jessica smiled again and shook her head. "You tell it just fine Ray."

"Oh," Ray was quite taken aback by the praise. He desperately tried to think of something to say next. "So, er, do ya come here often?" he said, immediately dropping his face into his hands as soon as the words had left his lips.

"To the Canadian Consulate?" Jessica giggled and Ray looked at her, grinning like an idiot.

"Cut me some slack here," he said, "I'm tryin', y'know..."

"Don't you have a better line?" asked Jessica, biting on the corner of her lip. She couldn't quite believe she was being so forward, but she felt comfortable with Ray.

Ray laughed. "Er, how about...is it hot in here or is that just you?" Ray blushed now. This wasn't at all how he was hoping this would play out. Jessica giggled again. "OK then," Ray smiled, "forget the corny lines, maybe, um, tell me somthin' about yourself? How long ya been doin' this job?"

"I've never done anything else," explained Jessica, "it's all I ever wanted to do, to help the kids I mean. I...I grew up in care myself, so I know what a difference it makes to get a good social worker." Ray wasn't quite sure what to say. Jessica smiled. "Don't feel sorry for me, please Ray. This is exactly what I mean, people only hear the bad stories, the kids that bounced from one foster home to another via some awful kids home and then join a gang and...well, you know how those stories end up. I had a good childhood, I want to make sure that as many kids as possible have the same, whether that's with their own families or not. I love kids."

"So do I," said Ray, rather too enthusiastically he suddenly realised. He wasn't doing a very good job of playing this cool. "Er, you're not the kind of social worker we usually have to deal with," he continued with a grin.

Jessica giggled and blushed again. "I'll take that as a compliment," she said, "but I know what you mean. It's a tough job Ray and I guess if you've been doing it for years, well, I guess it can get you down and these days there's so many more hoops you have to jump through, so many rules and regulations, just to get anything done. It can be very frustrating at times. Give me a few more years and watch me become cantankerous too!"

"Are ya sure ya wanna be doin' it that long?" asked Ray, laughing, "I can't really see ya bein' canter...cantik...er, whatever ya said." His face fell a little as he stumbled over the word. Trust her to hit me with Fraser words, he thought, those two are gonna get on just great. I've got no hope here. He pushed the negativity to the back of his mind. He wasn't going to give up just yet.

"Actually, I did think about moving into teaching instead," admitted Jessica, "don't get me wrong, I love my job, but sometimes I think, maybe...oh I don't know, it's just a silly dream really."

"I think ya'd make a great teacher," Ray tentatively put his hand on her forearm, "follow your dreams, isn't, er, isn't that what they say?"

Jessica looked down at Ray's hand on her arm. It felt good, really good, she hadn't expected any of this when she'd arrived at the Consulate. When they first met at the hospital she'd thought he was cute of course. Fraser had caught her eye immediately with his handsome good looks, broad shoulders and smart uniform, but then she'd noticed Ray had different qualities. She liked his hair, the way he obviously spent a bit of time over it, but clearly wasn't really vain, judging by the way he dressed anyway. She liked the energy that he radiated when he walked into a room. She liked the determination he had to see that whoever had done this to Mikey was caught and punished. She put her other hand on top of his. "That's what they say," she agreed, realising her voice had come out almost a whisper. She looked up and straight into Ray's eyes. Wow, his eyes were beautiful she thought, am I really falling for a cop?

Wow she's beautiful, thought Ray, am I reading this all wrong? I just met her yesterday, but I think I wanna...I think I wanna kiss her. He closed his eyes briefly and imagined what it might be like. Hell yeah, I wanna kiss her, he thought. He opened his eyes and leaned forward slightly. He heard her take a tiny sharp breath...was that fear, he thought? He looked deep into her eyes...no, he realised, oh god what am I doing?

Jessica's tongue darted out and wet her own lips just before they met Ray's in a tender kiss. Almost instantly they both pulled back. There was just a second where their hearts were both beating so fast that they thought they'd done the wrong thing, but then, simultaneously, they smiled at each other and kissed again, with more passion this time. Ray brought a hand up to cup her face and he felt her soft skin beneath his fingertips.

XxX

Fraser and Dief walked through the early evening hustle and bustle of the city. Office workers were beginning to leave for home and teenagers were gathering outside diners and cafes. The sounds and smells overwhelmed Fraser's senses as usual and he tried to block out some of the more intimate conversations he couldn't help overhearing. Soon, they'd walked all the way to the Reitman's neighbourhood. Fraser was sure he hadn't done that on purpose, but maybe he had? The lack of progression in the investigation was bothering him of course, so perhaps in the back of his mind he'd felt there was something they'd missed at Lisa's house earlier? A vital piece of information that might lead them to her whereabouts maybe, or at least confirmation that it was her who'd been driving the rental car at the time of the terrible accident.

Fraser crossed the street and headed towards Lisa's house, he still had the key from earlier, so he was going to let himself in again, but before he'd walked along her path something caught his eye. The front door of Mrs York's house was wide open. Odd, he thought, it certainly wasn't that warm an evening and Mrs York wasn't in her front garden. He began walking towards her house, just to make sure everything was alright and he saw through the window that the television was on. Now he was slightly concerned. Perhaps she hadn't latched her door securely and she was unaware that it was open, he pondered. This was a good neighbourhood, but security was still an important consideration. He took a few more steps when suddenly he noticed something else, a foot poking out through the door. He looked down at Dief, not wanting to believe what he was seeing. "Oh no," he said and ran over to the house. "Mrs York!" he called out, but as he got there his fear was realised. Mrs York was lying face down on the floor, her left leg dangling over the doorstep with both arms trapped awkwardly underneath her. Her walking stick was some distance away, presumably it was flung away as she fell, thought Fraser.

"Mrs York!" he called out again and then held his breath as he felt for a pulse, breathing a sigh of relief as he felt a strong heartbeat. At his touch, Mrs York groaned quietly. "Mrs York, lay still, I'll call for an ambulance, everything will be alright," Fraser tried to reassure her.

He was slightly taken aback when she grabbed at his leg with her free hand. "How many times..." she began in a shaky voice, "do I have to tell you...call me Edie."

Fraser couldn't help smiling a little. At least she still had her wits about her. "I'm sorry...Edie..." he replied.

"And don't bother...calling an ambulance," the old lady continued, her voice getting stronger now, "I'm not going...to the hospital." As she spoke she tried to push herself up, but got no further than lifting her head and shoulders off the ground.

"Mrs...Edie, please don't try to move," Fraser implored her, "you may aggravate your injuries and I'm afraid I must insist on you attending the hospital." He gently supported her under her arms as she tried to sit up again.

"You'll insist nothing of the sort, Constable," Edie said with even more determination this time, "I just had a silly fall, that's all..." with Fraser's help she was now sitting upright. "It's just a few bumps and bruises." She dusted herself down with one hand.

Fraser stared in horror at her face. Once side was black and blue, but her eyes were bright and piercing and she stared straight at him, the way his Grandmother used to when he'd been late home or had torn his clothes climbing trees. He sighed, he knew he had a battle on his hands. "Alright," he conceded, "but I must insist at least that you call me Benton." Edie nodded at this and he smiled. "Good," he continued as he scooped her up into his strong arms and carried her inside. "Please allow me to examine your injuries, you may have a concussion and if I'm right, you are experiencing some pain in your left arm."

"You are a very observant young man," replied Edie with a sigh as he carefully lowered her onto the sofa.

"What happened?" he asked her as he lifted her eyelids, first one then the other, with his thumb, watching her pupils react to the sudden onslaught of light.

"I was being silly," sighed Edie, "I thought I saw..." she stopped and Fraser was concerned about the sudden apprehensiveness that showed on her face.

"You thought you saw what?" Fraser prompted, carefully checking her over for broken bones.

"There was someone at the Reitman's house," she explained, wincing as Fraser touched her bruised and swollen left hand, "I thought it was Lisa, so I was going over to see her, I think I was trying to run, I must have tripped over the rug." She hung her head and spoke sadly now. "What was I thinking? I don't even remember the last time I ran anywhere."

Fraser frowned slightly. "Why didn't you call the Police?" he asked, gently.

Edie looked at him apologetically. "I know she's in some kind of trouble," she replied, "She's a good girl Benton, I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding, I wanted to tell her about Mikey. I'm sorry."

Fraser sighed. If Lisa had returned to her house earlier she was certainly not there now. Apart from a lot of bruising, Mrs York had escaped very lightly following her fall. "I don't believe you have a concussion," he explained, "and I'm almost certain that your wrist is merely sprained and not broken, however, I would feel much happier..."

"I'm not going to the hospital," Edie interrupted him.

Fraser looked at her for a moment. He didn't want to insult her intelligence, he didn't want to force her into doing something she didn't want to do and he was fairly sure that her injuries weren't serious. He looked away briefly and then back to her. "Alright," he said finally, "but I will need to use your telephone to call Detective Vecchio, he is with...um, with a friend of his and I'm sure she'll be happy to sit with you while we go and see if anything has been disturbed next door."

"I don't need babysitting," snapped Edie.

"I'm quite aware of that," replied Fraser, putting on his best Mountie like authoritative voice, "but I'd rather you weren't left alone for a while, just in case."

Edie sighed, she knew she wasn't going to change his mind on this, but at least it was better than a trip to the hospital, she thought. She nodded reluctantly.

"Excellent," smiled Fraser, "I'll call Ray and then I'll find some ice, see if we can't get some of that swelling down."


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

"Thank you so much for coming," whispered Fraser as Ray and Jessica stepped in through the front door of Edie York's house. "I'm terribly sorry for interrupting your...evening," he continued, choosing his words carefully, "I had no idea that you had decided to go out to eat." Ray's face was a cross between a grin and a scowl as he followed Jessica into the room.

"Hello again Detective," Mrs York tried to smile, but it was too uncomfortable for her. "I don't mean to be a bother, I'm quite alright really, but Benton insisted." Fraser had bandaged her hand and made a sling out of a large table napkin. She looked at Jessica who smiled at her. "It's lovely to meet you dear," she said to the younger woman.

"Hello," replied Jessica, eyeing her with concern, "I understand you had a nasty fall."

"Er, shall we, um, head over to the house buddy?" asked Ray, keen to get going before the two women got too deep in conversation.

"Right you are," nodded Fraser, "if you'll excuse us ladies."

The door of Lisa's house was locked so whoever had been in there earlier obviously had a key. They quickly looked in all of the rooms, but nothing appeared to have been moved from when they were in there earlier that day. They were just about to head back to Edie's house, when Fraser suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked at Ray and his partner wondered what on earth was wrong. Fraser spun on his heels and went back to the bathroom. "Look Ray," he said, opening the bathroom door.

"Er, it's a bathroom Fraser?" said Ray, scratching his head.

"Well, yes I realise that," sighed Fraser, "but what's odd about it? What's different?"

Ray looked carefully around the bathroom, he felt sure that it was going to be some really obscure thing that only Fraser could possibly notice. There was a neat row of shampoo and shower gel bottles on the window sill and a glass beaker with toothbrushes and toothpaste in stood by the basin. The bath was so clean it shone and four neatly folded towels hung on a rail. Ray's bathroom looked nothing like this, he kept it clean enough of course, but what was the point of folding towels neatly, he thought to himself? "Er..."

"Ray, the toilet," said Fraser, rather impatiently, rubbing at his left eyebrow with his fingertips.

"Looks like a regular toilet to me," shrugged Ray, "I mean, it's not one of those freaky Canadian ones like ya got at the Consulate...oh!" Ray suddenly realised what Fraser was getting at. "The seat, it's up."

"Indeed," agreed Fraser, relieved that his partner's detective skills weren't as lacking as he'd first feared. "Lisa Reitman would most certainly not have left her bathroom in such an unkempt manner."

"Someone was here then," Ray ran his hand through his hair as he thought, "and it was, er, I guess it was a guy?"

"One would assume so, considering the position of the toilet seat," agreed Fraser, "although assumptions can be dangerous in detective work."

Ray looked at him and let out a snort. "Fraser, we're standin' here lookin' at a toilet," he said.

"Ah," Fraser replied, "I suggest in that case that we return to Mrs York's house and arrange for a forensics team to visit here."

xXx

"I thought Edie was gonna beat ya with her walkin' stick when ya suggested she go to the hospital," Ray laughed as he drove Jessica home.

"Indeed," agreed Fraser, "I had already attempted to persuade her myself, but with no success." He slowly ran his tongue over his lower lip as he thought about what else he could have done. He had asked Francesca Vecchio to stay the night with Mrs York as she couldn't have coped on her own and when they'd left, the two women had been getting on very well indeed.

"Do you know what she said to me when you guys were in the other house?" asked Jessica and Ray shrugged. "She said people her age go into the hospital and never come out again. It was so sad."

That brought a lump to Ray's throat. Edie York may be in her eighties, but there was no way she was finished, not yet, not by a long way. "I'm going to make some enquiries, see if Mrs York is entitled to some home help," Jessica continued.

"She is a very proud woman, it will be hard for her to accept any more help," noted Fraser from the backseat of the GTO, ducking out of the way of Dief's snout as the wolf vied for attention.

"I hope I've persuaded her that it's for the best," replied Jessica, "I think I was saying all the right things, she seemed to come round to the idea anyway."

Ray smiled. Jessica really cared about the old lady, it wasn't her area of social work, but she was going to work on her behalf anyway. He admired her dedication to helping people. She was such a great person...and she was interested in him? He still couldn't quite believe it.

They pulled up outside Jessica's apartment building. "I, er, won't be a minute," Ray called out to Fraser as he held the car door open for Jessica.

"Right you are," replied Fraser, "goodnight Jessica. Thank you kindly for your assistance today."

Jessica bid the Mountie and his wolf goodnight and Ray walked her to her door. "It was kind of your sister to offer to stay with Edie tonight," said Jessica as she turned her key in the lock.

"My, er..." for a brief moment Ray was confused, he still forgot occasionally that he was Ray Vecchio. "Oh, Frannie," he grinned as the penny dropped, "well she'll offer to do whatever Fraser wants, if ya see what I mean, but yeah, my sister's cool, well, when she's not being, y'know, weird or somethin'."

Jessica smiled. "I noticed she couldn't keep her eyes off Benton," she said with a laugh. She could totally understand it of course, Fraser was mesmerising, handsome, brave and so polite and considerate...but she only had eyes for Ray now it seemed. How did this happen, she asked herself? "Um, would you like to come in?" she asked hopefully. "We never did get any coffee tonight."

"Oh," Ray could feel his face going red, "um, I'd love to, y'know, but, er, Fraser's waitin' in the car."

Jessica giggled, slightly embarrassed. "Of course he is, I forgot, I guess I..." she couldn't find the right words, just having Ray here in her apartment was muddling her brain and she wasn't thinking straight.

"Er, we're goin' to drop into the Two Seven right now," Ray explained, "um, do some checkin' up on stuff, y'know, but tomorrow mornin' we'll be at the hospital. We gotta speak to Brett Reitman about his brother and some of the other things Edie told us."

"OK, well maybe I can sit in on that?" suggested Jessica, absentmindedly twirling hair around her finger. She wasn't really sure what good it would do, but she was making excuses to see Ray again.

Ray smiled, he had her figured out of course, but he wasn't complaining. In fact he had been about to suggest it himself, for the very same reason. "Sure," he nodded, "um, I guess we'll see ya there." Jessica nodded and smiled back. "So, er..." Ray glanced back over his shoulder and then back to Jessica. "I, um...Fraser..."

Jessica giggled. "You can't leave him out there all night, he'll freeze."

"Well, I doubt that coz Fraser...well, Fraser doesn't feel cold like other human bein's," Ray laughed, "he's Canadian."

"Oh," Jessica giggled again, then tried to regain some composure. She was a respectable grown woman and she was acting like a teenager, she mentally reprimanded herself. "I guess I'll say goodnight then?"

"Yeah," nodded Ray. This was silly, how long does it take to say goodnight to someone, he thought? They'd been standing there for more than ten minutes. OK, it was now or never. He wasn't going to be satisfied with a couple of kisses on the sofa at the Consulate this evening, he figured. He could have stayed on that sofa all evening, but he'd kind of got all romantic and chivalrous, or something and suggested they go out for dinner, like a proper date. He hadn't expected to be interrupted by Fraser calling before they'd finished their desserts though. Ray placed one hand on her shoulder and leaned in for a kiss, almost gasping at the feel of her lips on his. It was never like this with Stella, he thought, their first kisses had all been about teenage lust and raging hormones. Stop thinking about Stella, he yelled at himself in his head.

Jessica wasn't in any hurry for this moment to end. She wrapped one arm around him and pulled him closer, pressing her body into his. Why did he have to go, she asked herself, she'd never done this before but she wanted him to stay. "Ray," she whimpered his name, throwing her head back as he freed her mouth and began kissing her neck.

Ray was breathing heavily now, his senses overloaded with everything about her. He slipped his free hand into hers and entwined their fingers as he nuzzled his way around to her ear. He could feel her heart beating faster, matching his, pulse for pulse. "Jess," he breathed in her ear...he paused, trying to catch his breath, his head dangerously close to losing the battle with his heart. "I...I can't..."

Jessica's face fell. She knew he was right of course, they'd known each other for what, a day or something? They'd only talked about a case and had one date...well, half a date, she corrected herself. Even if his best friend hadn't been waiting downstairs in the car, she wasn't that kind of girl...or maybe she just hadn't met the right guy before now? "I know," she breathed back and they broke apart, although their hands were still locked together, neither one wanting to break that final bond. Ray reached for her other hand and lifted it a little, squeezing it just as tightly as the first.

Jessica's hair had become slightly dishevelled by the passion and Ray thought it made her look even more beautiful. He released one of her hands and brushed the stray hair back into position. "See ya tomorrow," he said, stealing one final, brief kiss from her lips. Jessica watched him go, unable to find any words for that moment.

XxX

Ray was almost silent as he drove Fraser back to the Consulate. They'd spent an hour at Francesca's station at the precinct and had discovered that Brett's brother Josh had a rap sheet. Nothing serious, a DUI conviction and one for possession, but he had been arrested a few other times, although the Police hadn't been able to make any charges stick. Of course that in itself didn't necessarily mean that he had any involvement in the case, Fraser had pointed out. Ray's instincts had started to get twitchy though.

Now, as he eased the GTO around the city streets, Ray's head was buzzing, he almost wanted to kick Fraser out of the car at the next corner and drive straight back to Jessica's apartment. He hadn't felt like this way about anyone in such a long time and he loved it. A huge smile spread slowly across his face. Then he felt a little bad, was it wrong to feel so happy when poor Mikey was so sick in hospital? They had to find out what had happened soon, that poor kid...but...oh Jessica's lips were so soft and her touch so tender and loving and...

"Ray?" Fraser was looking at him funny, kind of sideways in that way that his buddy had when he only half knew what was going on. "Is everything alright? You look a little...distant."

"Me? Um, I think I might, er...I think I might be in big trouble buddy," replied Ray, watching the lights change to green.

"Oh dear," Fraser was suddenly more worried, "you're in trouble? I thought that you were...well, I thought that...I'm terribly sorry, I was entirely mistaken...is there anything I can do to help?"

Ray laughed and turned to look at his partner briefly before returning his attention to the road. "Fraser you freak! Not that kind of trouble. I'm talkin' about Jessica."

"Oh," now Fraser was quite confused. "Miss Carreno?" Ray nodded a confirmation and Fraser's face relaxed slightly. "Ah," he said, "in that case I was correct in the first place. You have developed romantic feelings for her, haven't you."

Ray laughed again. Fraser had an uncanny ability to talk like they were living in a black and white movie. "Er, yeah, I guess I have."

"And if you don't mind the intrusive nature of the question Ray, do you believe that those feelings are reciprocated?" enquired Fraser, blushing slightly.

"If by reciperc...um, whatever ya just said, ya mean does she like me too, then yeah she does," replied Ray, his smile wider now, crinkling his eyes. "Ya know, we're buddies right? Best buddies...and, um, best buddies talk about stuff like this so it's OK, it's not intrusive or nothin'."

Of course," agreed Fraser, relaxing slightly. He didn't want to see Ray make a fool of himself, or worse, end up getting his heart broken. He knew himself exactly what it felt like to experience both of those, in the most painful and crushing way and he wouldn't want his best friend to have to deal with anything like that. Ray had already been hurt so badly when his marriage ended, he deserved some happiness now. Not that Jessica was anything like Stella of course...or Victoria...no one was like Victoria...

"Hey, Fraser?" It was Ray's turn to look strangely at Fraser this time. "Now who's bein' distant? We're here."

Fraser shook his head a little and forced a smile, always nearly impossible after he'd been thinking about Victoria. "Right you are," he said, picking his hat off the dashboard and opening the car door, but before he got out he looked back at Ray. "You really ought to telephone Annie Bartlett, it is the decent thing to do."

"Annie who? Oh..." Ray had completely forgotten about the sister of the woman they'd rescued only days earlier, the woman who had so enthusiastically given him her telephone number. "She's probably forgotten about me already Fraser," Ray tried to shrug it off.

"So you don't intend to call her? That's not very chivalrous Ray," Fraser was doing his disappointed voice, the one that always made Ray feel guilty.

"Fraser this is America, we're not big on chivalrous!" Ray was making light of this situation, but then he caught Fraser's eye and realised that the Mountie was doing his disappointed face to go with the voice. Ray hung his head, the voice and the face together? He had no chance. "OK," he mumbled, "OK I'll call her and, um, say somethin' nice. Is that chivalrous enough for ya?"

Fraser nodded and got out of the car, slamming the door behind him. "Goodnight Ray," he said, squaring his hat on his head.

"Fraser..." Ray leaned across and called out of the window. Fraser bent forward and looked in expectantly. "It's just, um, I guess I've never had to choose y'know? Not that I gotta make a choice really, I mean Annie was nice and everythin'..." Ray's voice trailed off. He was used to getting his ego bruised, this was quite the opposite and it was an entirely new experience for him. He and Annie Bartlett had barely spent any time together, only while they were searching for her sister. He'd been sympathetic towards her, as he would be with anyone in the same situation and he'd been so pleased when she actually showed an interest in him, but he'd never thought of her in that way at all. Jessica on the other hand... "but Fraser, Jess is...Jess is...she's amazin' buddy."

Fraser nodded and flashed Ray a crooked smile. He was pleased to see his friend so happy. He was obviously enamoured with Jessica and it was good to see. He straightened and half waved half saluted to his friend.

"See ya in the mornin' Fraser," grinned Ray.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

"So then, let me think, then it was Antonio Banderas...no wait, he's a movie star, um, it was Antonio something-or-other anyway," Francesca Vecchio helped herself to another chocolate slice. "These are delicious Edie," she smiled, wiping crumbs from around her mouth.

"I hope they're still fresh, I made them yesterday," replied the old lady, adjusting her aching legs a little. "You were telling me about Antonio?"

"Oh yes," Francesca remembered, she was so easily distracted by chocolate. "He was gorgeous, I mean, he had a great body, he worked out a lot."

"I love a man who works out," nodded Edie with a slight giggle.

"Well, he took me to the movies on our first date," continued Francesca, "and who should be there? Carlos! Would you believe it? I mean, we only dated for, like, a week, but you'd think he owned me the way he reacted! When I say dated, it was more like socialised y'know? Not real dating. We went to two clubs, that was it, he was a good kisser mind you, but he was so possessive so I told him to take a hike...well actually I didn't get round to telling him...I guess that may have been the problem?"

"I seem to remember I was in a similar situation once," Edie frowned as she tried to remember, all those years ago, "this was before I met Harry of course. A young man named Ted had asked me to a dance and I'd said yes, but then Humphrey Clarkson asked me too. Oh goodness me, he was a handsome young man," Edie was smiling now. She'd enjoyed this evening so much. Ray's sister was such a lovely young girl, she thought, slightly dizzy, but lovely and she'd cooked her a beautiful meal. So many young girls couldn't cook these days, it was a joy to behold. They'd been talking about Francesca's various male acquaintances for over an hour now and she'd been enthusiastically listening to every detail, even the slightly racy details. It had made her feel young again.

"What did you do?" asked Francesca, her eyes wide. She was having difficulty imagining this frail, slightly plump old lady as a young girl being pursued by two possible suitors at once.

"Well I got my friend Margaret to tell Ted I was ill and I went out with Humphrey," explained Edie, "but of course he took me to the dance that Ted was going to take me to and he was there...with another girl of course. Cynthia Littlejohn. She was one of the girls with a reputation, if you know what I mean." Francesca wasn't quite sure what she meant, but she had a fair idea. "Then I'm afraid there was an exchange of words and Humphrey asked Ted to step outside."

It took a moment for the old fashioned terminology to register with Francesca, but when it did, she couldn't help laughing with the shock. "They had a fight over you?" she exclaimed.

"I'm afraid so," Edie looked a little guilty, "I'm not proud of it, poor Ted came out of it rather badly, Humphrey was a college boxing champion you see."

There was a moment's silence and then both women burst into giggles. Edie hadn't laughed like this in years. Apart from Lisa's daily visits to keep her house in order, she had no contact with anyone else. She suddenly realised how lonely she was.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse and the wind was howling outside as the rain pelted against the window. "We should probably go to bed," suggested Francesca. "Let me help you."

"Thank you," replied Edie, reluctantly allowing the younger woman to ease her to her feet.

XxX

"Josh was premature, seven weeks and then he never really caught up, growth wise I mean," Brett sat forward in his chair with his arms folded across the table in front of him, "I've always thought that he learned to be tough because he was such a small guy." Brett let out a small laugh and picked up the Styrofoam cup of lukewarm hospital coffee that Fraser had presented him with earlier.

"There have been several studies on just that subject..." Fraser began, but Ray knew that look, the look that meant he was about to launch into a long, boring and ultimately pointless ramble about something he'd read about, or heard somewhere.

Fraser immediately recognised Ray's look, the look that meant 'Shut up Fraser', so he complied.

"He's got one or two priors," Ray pointed out.

Brett nodded. "He gets mixed up with...well, truth is I don't ask because I don't want to know. I don't know what's wrong with him? He drives our Dad crazy, but he's my brother, y'know... We used to go up to Dad's fishing lodge all the time when we were kids and even then he would get himself into some kind of trouble. We still go up there sometimes, well, when my Dad's not up there anyway. It's best if those two are not in a confined space together, not since Mom died. I know Dad blames Josh somehow, but she had cancer? They just clash all the time, it's kind of sad...I mean, he's a moron, but he's still my Dad's son, he's still my brother."

Fraser nodded solemnly. He didn't have any biological siblings himself, but he loved both Ray and the real Ray Vecchio as if they were his brothers. He couldn't imagine either one of them committing any serious criminal acts, but he knew that if either one were to get into trouble, he would stand by them again as he had done already.

"I had nowhere else to go when I moved out of the house," continued Brett, "but he said I could crash on his couch, so that's where I went. We drank too much in those first few weeks I guess, but it, um, it was all I could do to stop myself cracking up. He, er, he offered me other stuff too...coke and he had some weed too...I didn't ask where he got it...I said no of course. I think he was just trying to help."

"Did you and Lisa ever fight over your brother?" asked Jessica. Ray had suggested she join in if she thought of anything that might help. She was nervous that Brett might think their conversation the day before hadn't been as confidential as he'd thought, but Brett was far too preoccupied with worrying about his son and his missing wife to care.

"Sometimes...I guess..." Brett shrugged, "I think she's smarter than me, I don't want to get involved, but she doesn't like it when he's around Mikey. It's not like he's going to give my kid alcohol or drugs? He's not like that..." Brett's voice trailed off as he tried to decide whether he was trying to convince them of that, or himself.

Jessica gave him a small supportive smile.

"We were fighting about Josh the day before..." Brett's voice cracked as he thought about the day of the accident, "Mikey was meant to be staying with me, but I had an urgent thing at work so I took him back home, to Lisa's I mean and she said some things about my brother that I didn't like. It was as if she was suggesting it wasn't safe for Mikey to be with me."

"Perhaps she didn't really mean it like that?" suggested Jessica diplomatically.

"I guess," sighed Brett, "or maybe she decided to run and take Mikey away from me, somewhere where he'd be safe?"

Ray glanced at Fraser, it was certainly beginning to look like that was exactly what had happened.

"Do you have any idea of a location that Lisa may consider to be safe?" asked Fraser, "A friend, or relative's home perhaps?"

Brett shook his head. "Lisa doesn't have girlfriends or anything, her friends are our friends and her sister lives about an hour away, but they don't really get along, so I can't imagine she would have been heading to her place?"

Before any more questions could be asked, there was a knock at the door and a young nurse poked her head into the room. "Sorry to interrupt," she said, looking a little sheepish, "but I thought you'd like to know, your son is showing signs of regaining consciousness."

Brett let out the breath he'd been holding since the nurse had appeared and leapt up from the chair.

xXx

Josh Reitman looked at the tiny, empty bottle in his hand and then across at the sleeping form of Lisa Reitman on his couch. He'd lit the fire again, these old wooden lodges got cold at night, even at this time of year. He shook the bottle, as if somehow this would magically make more pills appear, but when the silence indicated it was still empty he threw it angrily across the room and it smashed against the wall. He was starting to panic now, again...like he'd done anything but panic since this whole mess started. There were no more pills, maybe he shouldn't have given her two at a time? One might have been enough? It was enough for one of his girls usually, enough to keep them quiet. It was OK because they were all hookers so they were asking for it anyway...at least that's what he always told himself. If he had the money he would have just paid them, but he couldn't afford the kinds of girls he wanted and he wasn't going to sleep with just any lowlife, that's not how he had been raised. He laughed at that final thought, like his Dad...his stupid Dad...would know anything about hookers!

He'd needed to keep his sister-in-law more than just a little subdued though, he'd needed to keep her silent until he could figure out what to do. Mikey was dead and it was all his fault and then she turned up at the lodge with a face like thunder, but she didn't know...it had taken him a few minutes to realise, but she didn't know anything about the accident. So he'd invited her in, placated her, convinced her that Brett wasn't there...which was what she seemed to think, boy she was mad with his brother about something...and then offered her a drink. Those pills dissolved so quickly and there were no long lasting effects, none of his regular girls had ever suspected anything before, so they had at least bought him some time to think.

Thinking made his head hurt at the best of times, but that gash on the top of his skull was really throbbing now. It probably needed stitches, but he couldn't risk going to a medical facility, the whole of the State Police force was probably out looking for whoever had been driving that car by now, but he'd made sure that everyone would think it had been a woman...in fact if his plan had worked completely then they'd all be thinking it was Lisa, so her showing up here was an added bonus. If she disappeared too it would look even more likely.

But now he was out of pills and he was shaking with fear and panic...or was that just because he was out of coke? She'd be awake soon. He had to get out of there, he had to leave the State, maybe even the country. He hadn't meant to hurt Mikey? It was an accident. He'd made sure the kid was wearing his safety belt hadn't he? He thought Brett would thank him, he thought his brother wanted his kid with him all the time. Josh had planned to call Brett as soon as he and Mikey had got to the lodge and then the three of them would lay low there for a while before heading off to make a new life for themselves somewhere...anywhere away from Illinois. Brett would have thanked him, he knew it, but now he'd killed his brother's kid...Josh buried his head in his hands and tried to come up with a new plan.

Eventually he sat bolt upright. He had a plan now, it wasn't the best plan, but it was all he had. Run. He stood up and tried to think of what he could leave behind, he would need to travel light, he'd pack a small bag and leave immediately. He'd have to get money from somewhere though, but he'd worry about that once he was on the road. Lisa would wake up eventually and she wouldn't have a clue what had happened to her. Not that anything had happened to her, Josh just couldn't bring himself to do that to her. She wasn't one of his girls, she was...she was Brett's wife and despite everything, Josh knew his brother was still in love with her. He smiled to himself. He was proud of himself now. She had been lying there, virtually unconscious for almost three days, it would have been so easy, they're so compliant when they've had the pills...but no, he had resisted temptation. He was a good man, a decent man, despite what his Dad told him at every opportunity. He'd forced her to drink water...well there was no other way to get the stuff inside her...and he'd even got her to eat a banana yesterday. She'd seemed totally out of it, like she had no idea who he was even, but that was good under the circumstances.

He raced out to the bedroom, packed some essential items and left on foot, heading through the woods, the way he and Brett used to when they were kids.

xXx

Fraser, Ray and Jessica watched through the glass with smiles on their faces as Brett held his son's hand. Mikey's eyes were open, although not fully focussing, but it was early days. The doctor was explaining things to Brett and although he was nodding profusely, Fraser could tell he wasn't taking in very much of the information.

"It's always good when you can get a patient off the ventilator and breathing for themselves," the nurse smiled at Fraser as she spoke.

"There's so little we understand about the recovery process following a brain injury," noted Fraser.

The nurse nodded. "He is doing very well," she added, "children always recover much more quickly than adults."

Jessica was just about to tell them about a family she'd worked with where the eldest son had suffered a similar injury in a motorcycle accident, when the heavy double doors crashed open and a woman stumbled through, closely followed by another nurse, older than the one who had been talking to Fraser. "You can't go in there madam!" the nurse called out to her, finally getting close enough to grab at her arm.

"Get off me!" yelled the woman, shrugging the nurse away, causing her to stumble slightly.

Fraser stepped forward, blocking the woman's path. "Pardon me ma'am, but this is a restricted area, if you would kindly explain..."

"That's my son in there!" exclaimed the woman suddenly, rushing towards the viewing window and pressing both her hands flat against the glass. "Mikey!"

"Lisa?" Ray glanced at his partner, they'd only seen a couple of photographs and Lisa had looked very well presented in those, not a hair out of place, but this woman had dirty clothes and looked a mess from head to toe. Ray pulled out his badge. "Vecchio, Chicago PD," he announced, "ya got any ID?"

"ID?" the woman looked at him incredulously as tears began to roll down her cheeks, "that's my son in there?"

"Would you mind explaining where you've been for the last three days?" Fraser asked, keeping his voice steady. He was now convinced that she was Lisa Reitman, he had clearly identified the shape of her nose and her bone structure from the photographs they'd seen.

"Three days?" The woman's face fell. "Um, I..."

Ray looked to Jessica and then Fraser. "Look lady, the kid's been here for three days and you're his Mom, so where have ya been?" he asked.

The woman's breathing was becoming rapid now. "But...but..." she was sweating profusely. She stumbled towards the door, but Fraser reached out and took her arm, steadying her enough to stop her falling, but not enough to stop her pushing the door open.

Brett was startled by the sudden and rather dramatic appearance of people in the room, but his face lit up when he realised who it was. "Lisa!" he exclaimed, releasing Mikey's hand for the first time in over an hour and pulling the woman into a hug. "I thought...I thought..." the truth was he hadn't known what to think, but for now he was just glad she was safe and that she was here.

Fraser, Ray and Jessica stood back while Brett tried to explain what had happened, although they all noticed Lisa's confused manner. He tactfully avoided mentioning anything about who may have been driving the car, he thought it best to talk about Mikey's injuries and his prognosis for now. He was getting worried about his wife though, she'd never behaved this way before, it was completely out of character and he was desperately trying not to imagine what might have happened to her.

After a while, Lisa and Brett took up positions on either side of Mikey's bed, holding a hand each. Mikey had been moving his eyes towards each of them in vague moments of recognition and various doctors had been in and out of the room, poking and prodding him as they carried out a variety of tests.

Jessica noticed that Ray's mood had changed. He had started chewing the inside of his mouth and had been hitching the odd breath and staring out of the window. She glanced at Fraser, wondering if he'd noticed it too, but Fraser had adopted his Mountie stance. Even after just a couple of days, Jessica had realised that he had this uncanny ability to shut himself off from his emotions and become entirely professional. Ray didn't do that though and it was one of the things she loved about him...did she just say 'loved'? She suddenly realised her heart was beating just a little bit faster. "Ray, what's wrong?" she asked in a low voice.

Ray let out a heavy sigh and glanced up at Fraser, before looking at her. "Sometimes this job sucks," he said, his voice equally as quiet.

Jessica looked at Fraser, puzzled now. The family had been reunited and Mikey was on the road to recovery, what was Ray so down about? Fraser looked pensive now too. "You don't have a choice Ray," he said to his partner.

Jessica looked back to Ray. "What?" she had no idea what they were referring to.

Ray took another step forward and his hand hovered over the handcuffs that were clipped to his belt. Jessica looked pleadingly at Fraser for an explanation. Surely Ray wasn't going to...no, not Lisa? Not now? Something was very wrong with this whole situation, but Lisa wasn't a criminal? There must be a reasonable explanation for where she'd been, couldn't they see that? Couldn't they see that Lisa could not possibly have been the one driving that car? She wouldn't have left her son in those circumstances?

Ray turned and looked back at Fraser. "She's not guilty," he half whispered, his eyes sad with the inevitability of his duty.

Fraser nodded. He agreed, something inside of him told him that despite a lack of any physical evidence to the contrary, this woman...this mother...would not have abandoned her son in that way. His instincts maybe? He did have them of course, you couldn't be a successful officer of the law without instincts, but he just couldn't trust his the way Ray did. He wished he could, but he had to put his duty first...even after everything that had happened with Victoria when he'd put his duty above all else, he still had to...it was the only way he knew how to survive. "Ray, you must. She is a suspect in an attempted murder case, our only real suspect. She has no alibi or any explanation at this juncture. Let the wheels of justice turn, the truth will become apparent eventually."

Ray took another step forward. "Ray you can't?" Jessica hissed at him.

"Got no choice," mumbled Ray, dejectedly pulling out his handcuffs, "Lisa Reitman, you're under arrest..."


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

"I'll arrange for a psych evaluation," Lieutenant Welsh turned to leave the observation room.

"No," Fraser called after him, not taking his eyes from the woman sat on the other side of the two way mirror. He slowly coated his lower lip with his tongue. "I'm sorry Sir, but I don't believe that this woman has a psychological disorder." Lisa Reitman was seated at the table in Interview Room 2, sobbing and shaking. Every now and again she would look back over her shoulder, as if she thought someone was there. She was sweating again, even though it was cool at the station today and she couldn't seem to be able to answer a single one of Ray's questions.

"Constable, she drove a car at high speed, crashed and fled the scene leaving her severely injured kid in the back," sighed Welsh, "and now she's had some kind of blackout. Sounds cuckoo to me?"

"With respect Sir," replied Fraser, looking at Welsh now and standing to attention with his hands clasped firmly behind his back, "all of that is mere speculation at this juncture. I'm not certain at all that her current behaviour is as a result of any kind of mental breakdown."

"I'm inclined to agree with Constable Fraser," added Jessica.

Welsh looked at her with disdain. "I'm sorry Miss, who are you again? Are you a psychiatrist?"

"Jessica Carreno," Jessica replied, slightly nervously. She was intimidated by the Lieutenant, but she wasn't about to let his bullish nature create more problems for the Reitmans than they already had. "I'm the social worker assigned to young Michael Reitman and I've seen enough people with mental and behavioural problems to have a valid opinion. If anything, I'd say she was under the influence of a chemical substance, although knowing what I do about this woman, that explanation also seems very unlikely?"

Welsh was silenced for a moment. This softly spoken, sensitive woman was a social worker? That was kind of difficult to take in, he'd had dealings with enough of them over the years to have formed some pretty narrow minded opinions of the social services. All red tape and officious jobsworths, that was the type he usually encountered, but this one was different and she'd had the guts to speak up for what she thought was right. He nodded slowly. "OK," he glanced back through the window. Kowalski was at the end of his rope, he could tell. Not just because he was getting nowhere with his suspect, who was an emotional wreck, but he was also seconds away from decking Tom Dewey, that's if Dewey didn't punch him first.

To be fair to Dewey, he'd had a bad day, a bad week truth be told and Welsh had already had cause to haul him and Jack Huey over the coals about the Chin Mao case, but that was no excuse to take things out on anyone and everyone who got in his path? Huey had got the right idea and taken a couple of days off. Huey had always been the smart one.

"With your permission, Sir, I'd like to go in there," said Fraser, nodding towards the scene in the interview room. He was concerned that Lisa may well end up having some kind of breakdown after all if she was subjected to much more of Dewey's ranting and he could tell that Ray's patience was being tested dangerously close to the limit.

"Constable you have no jurisdiction here," Welsh felt obliged to remind him, although why he bothered he really didn't know. He wasn't about to stop Fraser from helping out because of some jurisdictional technicality, the duties of a Liaison Officer were vague at best anyway. Welsh was well aware that without Fraser's regular interventions, the outstanding cases on Kowalski's desk would be too many to count. Fraser made Kowalski look good among his peers, he made him feel good about himself and all that made him a better Police officer and Welsh knew only too well that he needed good Police officers in his station. He'd find a way to explain it to his superiors, or to the State's Attorney's office if it came to that, he always did.

Fraser stayed at attention and waited for the permission he knew would come.

"OK Constable," Welsh nodded finally, "send Detective Dewey to my office."

"May I speak candidly Sir?" asked Fraser. A puzzled Welsh nodded. "I believe that Detective Dewey's particular difficulties today may have something to do with the repercussions from the Lizzie Daley case. Discovering the body was particularly traumatic."

"That kid was strangled by her mother," replied Welsh, frowning. "Child abuse cases are tough on us all Constable."

"Agreed," nodded Fraser, "but then, after having supported the mother during the search for her missing daughter while naturally assuming her innocence, uncovering the extent of the abuse she had subjected Lizzie to was extremely difficult for him."

"So he's what? Projecting his anger against all abusive mothers onto this Reitman woman?" asked Welsh.

"I believe so," replied Fraser.

Welsh pondered this for a minute or two. Fraser was probably right. Difficult cases rocked the whole precinct and child murders were the worst kind, but Dewey was a professional, even though he was a moron sometimes, he was still a good officer. It had never occurred to him that the fallout from that case had been affecting him so much in the last couple of weeks. "I'll talk to him," said Welsh finally, "get him out of there."

"Thank you kindly Sir," replied Fraser heading out of the door, with Jessica close behind.

"Er, Constable," Welsh called after them, "I'll tolerate your interference," he was being deliberately rude, not wishing to let the Mountie know exactly how much his efforts were appreciated, "but I'm not sure where the social worker fits into an interrogation of a major suspect?"

"I can vouch for her integrity Sir," replied Fraser, as if that was an explanation. Welsh sighed and shook his head, muttering under his breath as he walked back to his office.

Fraser grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with water from the cooler, then knocked on the door. Ray instantly recognised Fraser's precise knock and breathed a sigh of relief. The door opened and Fraser and Jessica stepped into the room. Ray's mood, already boosted by knowing his buddy was going to help him out, was immediately lifted another notch at the sight of Jessica. "Excuse me Detective Dewey" said Fraser in his most Mountie-like voice, "the Lieutenant wishes to see you in his office."

Dewey thumped his fist into the table, earning a startled scream from Lisa. Then he pulled his jacket from the back of the chair, causing it to clatter noisily to the ground and stormed past Ray, glaring at the blonde detective on his way out of the room. As he slammed the door behind him, Ray had to bite hard on his lower lip to stop himself from laughing at the other detective's immature behaviour. Then he realised that he'd done almost exactly the same sort of thing on numerous occasions and suddenly it didn't seem quite as funny.

As soon as Dewey had left the room, Fraser picked the chair up off the floor and sat himself directly opposite Lisa. He handed her the cup and she took it in shaky hands, sipping a little water before placing it on the table in front of her. "Lisa, do you remember me from the hospital?" asked Fraser gently, trying to make eye contact with her.

Lisa looked steadfastly at her cup and nodded.

"I'm Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP. Do you understand where you are and why this is happening?" continued Fraser, trying to judge her state of mind. Ray had been doing his best, but his efforts to be calm and understanding had failed with Dewey in the room.

Lisa nodded again and the tears returned.

"I'm sorry if all of this is upsetting for you, but you must understand, we are investigating a very serious incident," Fraser continued. He looked up at Ray and rubbed at his left eyebrow with the back of his thumbnail. "Has a lawyer been arranged?"

Ray shook his head. "Refused one," he said. "Keeps sayin' she's done nothin' wrong."

Fraser looked back to Lisa. "I would strongly advise that you allow us to contact your lawyer, or one can be arranged for you." Lisa shook her head, silently. "Lisa," Fraser's voice was even softer now, "do you remember being in an automobile accident?"

Nothing.

"Do you remember driving your son somewhere in a blue car?" He waited for something to trigger a memory, but Lisa was still silent.

Fraser thought for a minute. It was entirely possible that she had blanked the accident itself, so he'd have to try a different angle.

"Lisa, do you remember cutting yourself recently? Do you have any injuries at all? Maybe you can't remember how they occurred?" he glanced up at Jessica who flashed him a small smile, she could see where he was going with this. "Lisa, this is Jessica Carreno, she is a friend. Would you allow her to take a look at you?"

Lisa shrugged. "I guess," she mumbled, "I didn't hurt my son, why do you keep saying that I hurt my son?"

Jessica stepped forward and carefully lifted Lisa's hands, one at a time, turning them over to look for any sign of healing cuts. She looked at her bare arms and legs and at her clothing, checking for bloodstains, but found nothing. "It's alright," Jessica said softly as Lisa flinched in fear, rather than in pain. Finally, Jessica made a cursory examination of Lisa's head, gently parting her matted hair, but again there was no caked blood, no sign of any wounds at all. Jessica looked at Fraser, shook her head and shrugged. Of course it hadn't been a very thorough examination, but they knew that whoever had cut themselves on the broken window of the car as they made their escape from the wreckage had bled sufficiently for the signs to be fairly obvious, even after this length of time.

Fraser let out a slow breath. "Lisa, I need you to look at me," he said, in his most trustworthy voice, "I want to help you and your family, we all do, but you need to trust me. Can you do that?"

After a long pause, Lisa finally lifted her head and looked at Fraser. He was shocked at the level of fear in her eyes. "I don't remember," Lisa whispered, "I don't remember anything? What's happened to me? What happened to my son?" Her face crumbled and Jessica crouched beside her, holding her as she cried.

Ray ran his hand over his face. Maybe she was nuts? He didn't know any more, he couldn't call this one and that bothered him. He hadn't even begun to get through to her. Dewey, the moron, had screwed things up by thinking he was interrogating the biggest mob boss in town or something, instead of a scared young mother.

"Lisa," said Ray, "look, um, can ya at least tell us what ya do remember?"

Fraser nodded, that was a good way to approach things. "Just close your eyes and try to remember what happened after you left Mrs York's house. You went home and then within a few minutes you drove away from your house in your car in somewhat of a hurry. Can you remember why that was?"

Lisa closed her eyes and tried to remember. She was at Edie York's house every day and now the days were all blurring into one. She screwed her face up. "Just relax," urged Fraser, "breathe slowly and try to remember. You'd dusted the tops of her picture frames that day," any tiny details like that might help her to bring those memories forward, he thought.

Lisa slowly opened her eyes. "The lodge," she said quietly, "I was going to the lodge."

"Your father-in-law's fishing lodge?" clarified Fraser.

Lisa nodded. "Yes, I thought that's where he would be."

"Your father-in-law?" Ray was puzzled.

"No, Brett," explained Lisa. Then she closed her eyes again. "Why? I can't remember why? Where was Mikey? He wasn't there. He wasn't in the car with me." She started to get a little distressed again.

"Take your time," urged Fraser, passing her the cup of water. "Do you actually remember arriving at the lodge, or spending any time there at all in the last three days?"

Lisa sighed and took a swig from the water. "Maybe?" she looked directly at him now, "I don't know? I think I slept on the couch?"

"So you were staying there?" Jessica joined in now, "you drove to the lodge to look for Brett and you stayed. Do you remember feeling unwell at all?"

Lisa nodded. "Yes, I had to lay down, I remember...I remember...I thought I was going to pass out?"

"Were you alone?" asked Fraser.

Lisa gulped down some more water. Things were starting to clear in her mind now, a little anyway. "I thought Brett had taken Mikey," she said suddenly, "He was gone when I got back from Edie's, I thought Brett had taken him. Oh God, we had this stupid fight and when I couldn't find him I just assumed Brett had taken him and the lodge was the only place I could think of that they would go, so I just got in my car and drove straight there."

"Why didn't you call the Police?" asked Fraser, sympathetically.

"Brett is my husband and I love him," replied Lisa, starting to cry again, "I want us to get back together, breaking up was the worst mistake I ever made. If anyone knew he'd snatched Mikey, they'd take him away from us wouldn't they?"

Jessica suddenly looked pale. Her profession had such a bad reputation and she wanted to defend herself, it was such a difficult job, there were so many hard decisions to make, but every decision was always made in the best interests of the child in question. She had every faith in her colleagues. "A child is never taken away from their parents lightly," she said quietly. "Every case is looked at individually and all circumstances are taken into account. In that situation, as in many others, taking your son away would be the last thing anyone would want."

"Do ya, er, remember what you argued with Brett about?" asked Ray, keen to steer the conversation away from making Jessica feel uncomfortable. Brett had told them that they'd been arguing about his brother Josh so he was interested to see if Lisa's story matched up, or at least if she could remember.

Lisa thought for a second with her eyes closed and then nodded again, opening her eyes as she spoke. "That stupid brother of his, Josh," she said, sniffing, "I think he takes drugs and I know he's involved in God knows what else, I told Brett that I didn't want our son spending time with..." Lisa's voice trailed off and her face went pale.

"Lisa?" Fraser was concerned. She didn't look well at all now.

Lisa grabbed hold of Fraser's forearm. "Josh," she could barely get her words out and she swallowed hard. "He was there...at the lodge...oh my...oh God...he had blood all over his shirt...I...he...he told me he'd had an accident with the axe? Then...I tried to get up, but...I couldn't move..." she was gasping for breath now, panic had set in.

Fraser took both of her hands in his. "Lisa, breathe slowly," he encouraged, looking into her eyes, "it's alright, you're alright now, you're safe now. No harm is going to come to you, I promise."

"Did he say anthin' about Mikey?" asked Ray urgently.

Jessica shot him a scowl. "Not now Ray," she snapped, rubbing Lisa's back gently, in a calming gesture.

Fraser was frowning too now, but not at Ray. "Lisa," he said, trying not to frighten her, "Lisa, may I take a look into your eyes?" He'd noticed something, but he had to be sure.

Lisa nodded and he released her hands. "Just keep taking those deep breaths," he urged as he fished a tiny torch from his pocket and shone it into her eyes. He clicked off the torch and took her pulse, it was erratic. Even allowing for her distressed state, he would have expected a steadier heartbeat.

Fraser glanced up at Jessica and spoke in a low voice. "I believe you were correct earlier," he said. Jessica wasn't exactly sure what he was referring to at first, but then he spoke again, this time to Ray. "This woman is innocent of all charges," he said and Ray breathed a sigh of relief, he'd known it himself of course, but hearing his buddy confirm it was greatness.

Then Fraser turned back to Lisa and held her hands again. "It is imperative that we arrange for a sample of your blood to be analysed at the earliest opportunity," he said, "it is my considered opinion that you have been unwittingly exposed to a combination sedative and motor impairment substance."

"A date rape drug?" the exclamation was out of Ray's mouth before he could stop himself. He'd seen those words on more and more medical reports recently and it made him sick to the stomach. He could have kicked himself in the head for not keeping his big mouth shut though.

Lisa's fear suddenly accelerated. "What?" she managed to gasp, although her mouth was so dry now. She couldn't get any air, she was going to die right now, she was sure of it. Why was this happening to her?

"It's alright," Fraser tried to calm her again, "breathe slowly, that's good, nice deep breaths, everything is alright." He glanced at Ray and instantly felt his partner's guilt. This was getting out of hand, there was no suggestion of rape at all, but now the poor woman had the idea firmly planted in her already foggy mind. He flashed a lopsided supportive smile at Ray, hoping it would ease his friend's pain. He wasn't so sure it had done the job though, as Ray's nostrils flared as he tried to control his emotions. "Lisa," Fraser spoke clearly and calmly, "we have absolutely no reason to suspect that you have been sexually assaulted in any way."

Lisa nodded, snatching at breaths as she tried to make sense of everything. Her memories were coming back in flashes, images of shouting at Brett, of her surprise at finding Josh at the lodge and then of being at the hospital, seeing her son, her baby, in that terrible state. "Mikey," she suddenly called out his name.

"We're going to take you back to the hospital right now," Jessica said, gently helping her to her feet. "You can see Mikey as soon as you've given a blood sample." She didn't mention the prospect of any further medical examinations, although under the circumstances she was hoping to be able to persuade her to submit to a thorough check up at the very least, once they were there.

Fraser got to his feet too. "We'll need to clear things with Lieutenant first," he explained, "Ray and I will only be a few minutes." He didn't want to add the word 'hopefully', but he said it in his head. Lieutenant Welsh was a fair man, but until the results of the blood tests were known, they were still going on very little evidence, only the testimony of a very confused woman. "I'm afraid you'll have to remain here until we can arrange for your release," he said and Lisa slumped sadly back down into the chair.

Jessica was equally disappointed. Of course Police work had just as much red tape as social work, she should have realised that they wouldn't be just walking out of there that easily.

xXx

"...and poor Lisa didn't even know that little Mikey was in the hospital? Ooh..." Edie York winced as Fraser manipulated her wrist.

"I'm terribly sorry," Fraser apologised, laying her arm gently down into her lap. "It's looking a lot better today, but I don't think you've been resting it as much as you should, have you?"

Edie looked slightly sheepish, she found it very difficult to be an invalid, it hurt her pride too much, although Francesca Vecchio had been very kind and treated her with respect.

"But no," Fraser continued, returning to her original question, "unfortunately the first Lisa knew about it was when she heard the appeal on the radio news broadcast as she was driving back."

"And she's lost her memory you said?" Edie felt so sorry for her young neighbour.

"Yes," replied Fraser, being careful not to divulge too many of the details to the old lady. He felt sure that Lisa would tell her in her own time anyway, but it was not his place to discuss anything too personal. He pulled a new support bandage over her wrist and refastened her sling. "Now how does that feel?" He asked her.

"Just fine, thank you dear," smiled Edie. She wasn't being entirely truthful and she had a feeling that Fraser could see through her little white lie, but he had the decency not to challenge her. The truth was that the discomfort, coupled with worrying about everything, had kept her awake most of the night, although she'd stayed up late chatting with Francesca anyway which she'd really enjoyed. "It was so kind of your friend to stay with me," she said, "she's a lovely girl."

"Um, yes..." Fraser cleared his throat with embarrassment, "she is. The Vecchios have been very good to me over the years," he added, trying to steer off the subject. He was acutely aware of Francesca's feelings towards him and of course he was flattered, but these days she was like family to him and nothing more. The sister he never had. He wished she would feel the same way about him as he craved family more than anything else, probably more than romance. He'd tried romance once before and it nearly destroyed him and everyone he loved. No, he'd decided that he couldn't risk that any more.

"It sounds like she has a large family," agreed Edie, "I'm afraid I was rather confused as to how many brothers she has?"

"Oh," said Fraser quietly, he imagined Francesca had been talking about the real Ray Vecchio, her real brother, most likely suggesting that he was away at this time so Fraser could see how Edie could get confused. "She has two brothers," he explained, keeping his answer as vague as possible.

"I see," Edie seemed satisfied with his answer, "the poor girl does seem rather unlucky in love though doesn't she." Edie smiled knowingly at Fraser and he forced a smile back, he had a feeling that this conversation was heading in a rather uncomfortable direction. "She was telling me about her marriage," continued Edie, "such a shame, they were far too young I think. In my day it was perfectly normal of course, but I think young people should experience a bit of life first before settling down, don't you agree?"

Fraser could feel his face flushing and he took a deep breath before fixing another smile, desperately trying to think of a way to change the topic of conversation, but he knew he had his work cut out, Edie York was nothing if not determined. "Yes," was all he could manage to splutter out in the end.

"She speaks very highly of you dear," Edie was enjoying this.

"She, er, does she?" Fraser tried to keep any emotion out of his voice. "Well, um, of course, I, er, that is..."

"Very highly indeed," Edie continued. "She is a lovely girl," she was repeating herself now, but she was determined to pursue this now she'd started it. "I had sixty years with my Harry before I lost him," she said, her smile now tinged with a hint of sadness, "my advice is don't wait to long."

Fraser stopped fidgeting with cushions and looked into her eyes, his smile genuine now. "Thank you kindly," he said sincerely.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

"I don't know what you're lookin' at," Ray sneered at Diefenbaker who was laid comfortably out across the back seat of the GTO, one front paw casually lolling over the edge. Dief wagged his tail once, and rested his head back down. "I'm a cop, not a, er, a cab driver," Ray continued to grumble.

So far that afternoon, he'd driven Lisa and Jessica to Lisa's house so that she could have a shower and change her clothes and collect some clothes and toys for Mikey with Jessica's help. Then he'd left Fraser at Edie York's house next door and driven Francesca back to the Two Seven via her place so that she could change her clothes first. Francesca had talked non stop about what an amazing woman Edie was and about how she'd never had so much fun staying with any of her friends as she'd had with the old lady. Most of it had gone straight over Ray's head though as he was thinking about the Reitman family and what he'd like to do to Josh Reitman in particular which, at best, involved his sturdy boot and the creep's head. Now he was back outside Lisa's house, ready to take her back to her son at the hospital.

Ray glanced over his shoulder at Dief again. "I assume you're stayin' here?" he asked the wolf, who yapped a presumably affirmative response. Ray's chin dropped to his chest. "This case is sendin' me nuts," he sighed, "now I'm talkin' to the wolf." He opened the car door and slammed it shut, his car taking the brunt of his frustration that, despite an APB being put out hours ago, no one had found Brett's brother yet.

He was about to head up the path when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and connected the call with a sharp prod on the appropriate button. "Vecchio," he snapped. It was Welsh. It seemed that he'd got a garbled update on the current situation from Francesca and was calling for a more comprehensible version of the facts following Lisa Reitman's hospital tests. He'd taken a gamble earlier on releasing the woman from custody and he wanted to make doubly sure that the faith he had in his officers wasn't misplaced.

"Yeah, the, er, the docs say she's probably been out of it for nearly seventy two hours," Ray explained, "but there's no sign that he laid a finger on her the whole time, so I guess that's somethin'." Ray still felt bad about what he'd said earlier to Lisa Reitman. She was terrified enough as it was, her jumbled memory giving her tiny flashes of images about the missing time, but not enough to be sure of anything. The idea that she had been completely at the mercy of her creep of a brother in law didn't even bear thinking about. Thank goodness all her tests had been good. "OK Sir, Fraser's gonna stay the night at the old lady's place so I'm headin' back to the hospital soon and I guess I should talk to Brett Reitman some more about his brother." There was a gruff acknowledgement from Welsh and Ray clicked off his phone.

Ray headed towards Lisa's front door. Jessica had stayed with Lisa during all her hospital tests and she had been able to allay some of the other woman's fears. The two women seemed to get on really well and Lisa really needed a friend at this difficult time. Ray smiled to himself, Jessica was so kind, she'd genuinely taken the Reitmans to heart. What was such a great girl doing with an idiot like him? His smile faded a little...maybe she was just being kind to him too, maybe she didn't really like him at all? He'd fallen in love with her, in just a few days, as stupid as it sounded he knew his heart was hers if she wanted it, but did she want it? He felt like he'd known her forever, but did she really know him yet? Once she did, maybe she'd back off... Ray stopped and drew a slow breath. This wasn't the time for all this, they had to find Josh Reitman and give this family the peace they needed so that little Mikey could concentrate on recovering from his terrible injuries. My love life is just going to have to wait, he decided with a tiny ironic laugh.

He was about to knock on the door, when something made him stop. Through the window he could see sunlight. It was late evening now and the sun had almost disappeared below the horizon behind the house and yet there was clearly a shaft of golden sunlight shining through the house. Ray's hands were sweating as he fumbled in his coat for his glasses and put them on. Peering in through the front window his heart started to beat faster. The sun was streaming through the back door which was wide open. When he'd left Lisa and Jessica there earlier he'd made sure all the doors and windows were locked. They'd not really thought Josh would come here, although a squad car had been circling the neighbourhood all afternoon anyway just in case, Ray had driven past it just a few minutes ago. Now the back door was clearly wide open and he just knew Jessica wouldn't have been so stupid as to open it, or let Lisa open it either. Josh Reitman must be in there with them.

Damn. He should never have left her. He flung himself flat against the wall and drew his gun. His breathing got heavier the more he tried to stay calm. He'd been in situations like this a hundred times before of course and normally he would have called for back up immediately, but this time the thought never even crossed his mind. Fraser was next door, he could have run straight to Edie's house to alert his buddy, but no, Jessica was in there, the woman he loved was in danger and all rational thought went out of his head. He had to get in there, he had to protect her.

Ray ran round to the side gate, scrambling over it like an animal chasing its prey. Once in the back garden he stayed low and close to the wall. If Jessica was hurt, he'd never forgive himself. What was he thinking earlier, just leaving her like that? It was obvious that this house and Lisa Reitman were both magnets for the sonofabitch. Any normal person who was wanted all over the State would have got as far away from here as he could, but it seemed that this guy had actually come all the way from his Dad's fishing lodge to the one place they never thought he would. How had he got past all the road blocks? How had he got away from the crash site the other day come to think of it? Ray realised that there were still so many shady details about this case that they shouldn't have assumed anything. Assumptions are dangerous in Police work, wasn't Fraser always telling him that? Fraser! Ray's hung his head, what on earth was he thinking? Fraser, his buddy, his partner, was just next door...Ray could have kicked himself in the head for walking into this on his own, but it was too late now. Every wasted second could mean...well, Ray didn't want to think what it could mean.

He slowly stepped through the open door into the kitchen. He stopped and listened, his own breathing and heartbeat were almost overwhelming, but through it he heard voices...Jessica's voice, he breathed a tiny sigh of relief. She was alive. Fraser could probably have told him what she was saying, but all Ray could hear was the low hum of her voice. He walked out into the hallway, following the sound...they were in the back room. Ray could see movement through the door which was slightly ajar. The room was full of Mikey's toys and games and there was a small table and chairs in the middle with a vase of flowers in the centre. On one side of the table Ray could see two people's backs, one of them he was certain was Lisa, but the other wasn't Jessica. It must be Josh, Ray thought to himself. He couldn't see Jessica but he could still hear her voice.

Ray's finger hovered over the trigger of his gun, the cold metal of the barrel pressed against his nose. He probably had a shot from here, he thought. He could take this guy out, get this whole thing over with. Then he lowered his gun and let out the breath he'd been holding. What the hell was he thinking? He wasn't about to shoot a guy in the back? There was no sign that he was even armed, nor that either Lisa or Jessica were in any imminent danger. Is this what love does, he thought to himself? I guess so, he sighed, he had to get his head straight and fast before the situation escalated.

He took another few steps forward and then breathed a small sigh of relief as he saw Jessica standing the other side of the table. She was talking and smiling and looked every inch like she had the situation under control. He could see Josh Reitman and Lisa more clearly now too, Reitman had a firm grip on Lisa's arm and she was clearly scared and upset. Ray pushed the door open. "Chicago PD," he announced, "let the lady go."

Ray's sudden appearance made everyone jump and Josh spun round, pulling Lisa with him. He saw Ray's gun aimed squarely at him and thought momentarily about giving himself up, but then he thought about what he had to lose. He knew if the Police ever started investigating him he would be in serious trouble and he just couldn't risk that. He flung his other arm around Lisa's neck and squeezed. "I'll break her neck," he said, gritting his teeth.

Ray had to stop himself from laughing. The guy was probably an inch shorter than Lisa, if not two and scrawnier than Ray. He may have been able to break her neck, given half a chance, but Ray had a gun pointed at his head? This guy was desperate, Ray realised. "I said, let her go," Ray repeated, taking a step closer to Josh. "I don't wanna have to shoot you pal."

"No," Jessica stepped forward too, "no one is going to hurt anyone. Josh, what were we just saying?" Jessica glared at Ray, but he didn't quite understand what he'd done to deserve a look like that? This situation was ridiculous? Of course he didn't want to have to shoot the guy, but there was no reason for him to do that anyway, it was just a threat. Reitman wasn't even armed. He was mad, that's for sure and he had the capacity to hurt Lisa, but Ray was standing barely five feet away from him and could easily overpower him, gun or no gun.

"You...you said if I let her go...I wouldn't go to jail," Josh said in a shaky voice, dropping his arm away from Lisa's neck, his sad eyes fixed on Jessica now.

"Well...that's not exactly what I said," Jessica frowned slightly, "but there's no need to get yourself into any more trouble." She glanced at Ray again, but this time the look was friendlier, pleading with her eyes for him to follow her lead. "Detective, please could you lower your weapon. Josh is very sorry for what he's done," she continued, hoping that by calling Ray 'Detective' Ray would realise what she was trying to do. "He thought that his nephew had been killed in the accident and he was scared. He never wanted to hurt anyone, isn't that right Josh?"

Ray was taken aback slightly by her compassion. He could have kicked this creep in the head by now and have him cuffed and on the way back to the Two Seven, but Jessica had obviously begun to build a rapport with him. He slowly lowered his gun, deciding to see how things played out. It might make the paperwork less complicated if he didn't have to use force to bring the guy in and anything that did that was worth exploring, he figured.

Josh was shaking, but he still had a firm grip on Lisa's arm. "I...I didn't mean to hurt Mikey," he said, "I wanted my brother to be happy, this bitch was turning him against me and...and that wasn't right." He looked directly at Lisa now. "That wasn't fair, I'm not a bad person? You're the one who took Brett's son away from him?"

Lisa was scared, but her anger was threatening to take over. Even though she was in no position to fight, she still managed to splutter a reply. "What? You're not a good person, which moron told you that? You and Brett are like chalk and cheese, I can't believe you have the same parents? You don't deserve to have Brett as a brother." Jessica raised a hand to try to stop her, but she was fuming now. "I've never tried to take Mikey away from Brett, he can see him whenever he likes. Just because I thought I didn't want to be with Brett any more, it doesn't mean I don't want Mikey to have a father?"

"OK, let's, er, let's just cool it shall we?" Ray could see how this situation was in danger of getting out of hand.

"Lisa, it's OK, we can talk about this later," urged Jessica, keeping her voice level and calm, "right now, Josh needs help and I can give you all the help you need Josh, but only if you promise not to hurt Lisa. Just let her go and we can help you." She reached out her hand, her palm facing upwards. "Please, let her go. Everything will be alright, I promise."

Josh nervously looked at Ray, encouraged by the fact that this cop still had his weapon pointing at the floor, rather than at his head. He tried to think, tried to see his way out of this mess. This other woman, she was nice, a social worker she'd said? Well that was OK wasn't it? She wasn't a cop, she wasn't trying to trick him into getting himself arrested. He'd already told her that the car accident wasn't his fault so maybe if he just went along with this he could talk his way out of trouble.

Maybe he could cut a deal or something? He knew the names of a few Chicago lowlifes, maybe they'd let him go if he ratted some of them out? He'd sure as hell get some satisfaction out of that after what some of them had done to him over the years. There was no reason why the cops would be interested in his business with hookers, that had nothing to do with his family did it, so the cops wouldn't be looking at that. There was no way they'd find out about what happened with that stupid dumb bitch last year...was there? What had her name been? Barbie? Bambi? Something like that...it wasn't his fault anyway. None of the other girls had died had they? She must have been allergic to it or something, or that moron had sold him some duff gear. He'd got rid of her so far away from his place though, so they couldn't possibly tie him to it anyway.

He took a deep breath, he hadn't thought about that in a long time. No, they couldn't possibly suspect he had anything to do with that. Maybe I should do what she says? A couple of hours and I could be walking, all I have to do is play it cool. I can do that. It was all a big misunderstanding anyway.

Ray was getting impatient. "I think ya should listen to the lady," he snapped, nodding towards Jessica, "coz if it was me, I'd still have a gun to yer head." He was starting to get a little concerned, Josh's eyes had sort of glazed over and it was freaking him out. He was probably high on something, probably a crackhead, Ray sighed. He was going to give the guy one more minute and then he was going to kick him in the head.

Slowly, Josh Reitman nodded. "OK," he half whispered. He let go of Lisa's arm and Jessica grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her out of his reach. "I told you, I'm sorry, I was just trying to help my brother. That rental car must have had faulty breaks or something."

"Yeah yeah," said Ray dismissively, as he tucked his gun back into its holster, "tell it to the judge." He pulled his handcuffs out and made a move towards Josh. "Joshua Reitman, you're under arrest for..."

"What?" exclaimed Josh, shoving Ray back with both hands and backing away, the fear and confusion evident in his eyes. "You can't arrest me? I've done nothing wrong?"

Ray stumbled, but managed to steady himself on the back of a chair. "Er, well, how about two counts of kidnapping for starters?" he said, lunging forward towards the man, but Josh was very agile and slipped past him and around the table, causing Ray to stumble again, this time clattering over the chair and ending up on the floor in a jumble.

Jessica tried to hold Lisa back, but her anger had taken over now. She didn't have a violent bone in her body, but how dare he? The stupid bastard actually thinks he's innocent in all this! She couldn't believe it. "You nearly killed my son!" she screamed at him, breaking free of the comforting arm Jessica had around her shoulder and running towards him, grabbing at his shirt and preventing him from getting out of the door.

"Freeze!" Ray had pulled out his gun again, but his aim from his current position spread-eagled on his back, still half under the table, was far from ideal, even with his glasses on.

Josh spun round and threw a punch at Lisa, which caught her in the ribs and sent her reeling to the floor. Jessica was immediately by her side, concern etched on her face. Josh could have made it out of the door, but he wasn't done yet, that social worker had lied to him, she'd tricked him and now look what had happened! This was all her fault.

Ray finally managed to scramble to his feet and angrily threw the two chairs out of his way, "What are you? A moron?" he yelled, aiming the gun at the man, "Get on your knees! On your knees, now! Hands behind your head!" He was this close to shooting an unarmed man...this close. Geez, Fraser can do the paperwork for this, he thought.

Josh Reitman had lost all grip on reality. In his mind the whole situation was everyone else's fault. His brother's, Lisa's, even the kid's fault for getting so badly hurt in the accident. His pusher had got him addicted to coke and that made him want to do things to people...and then there was that other stuff too, he wanted to try that again for sure, it was expensive, but boy was it worth it...wow what a rush... He couldn't go to jail for things that weren't his fault, how was that fair? Now there was a social worker playing with his mind and a cop trying to kill him and there was no way that any of them were going to get away with what they'd done to him...no way. "You stupid bitch!" he yelled and kicked Lisa again, as she lay on the floor still writhing from the punch he'd landed on her.

"Stop it" Jessica screamed at him and then the room was silenced as Ray fired a single shot, narrowly missing Josh who looked at him with the face of a frightened puppy, taking Ray completely by surprise. This guy is seriously screwed up, he thought.

"Ray please," begged Jessica. She knew this was his job, she knew that he probably had to shoot dangerous people all the time, but she really didn't want to witness it. She was so angry with herself, she thought he'd been starting to trust her. Josh was listening to her, she'd been saying all the right things hadn't she? He was going to give himself up, how had it come to this?

Josh completely lost it this time, he kicked out, even harder than before, he didn't even know if he was aiming for Lisa or Jessica, but then he really didn't care. The whole world was out to get him and he was damned if he was going to let that happen. His boot caught Jessica squarely in the temple and she immediately slumped unconscious to the floor.

"Jess!" Ray yelled and fired off another shot, but Reitman was too fast for him and was out of the door and out of the house before Ray knew what was happening. He scrambled desperately over to Jessica, his heart pounding. Reitman might only be a small guy, but he had heavy winter boots on and the force from the blow, directly to her head like that...Ray held his breath as he rolled Jessica over, completely ignoring the sobbing Lisa who had rolled herself into a foetal position. He checked for a pulse...oh thank god, she was alive and breathing. "Jess," he whispered into her ear, "Jess, wake up."

Jessica let out a low moan and opened one eye. "Ray?" she croaked out.

"It's OK baby," he said, "I've got ya, he's not gonna hurt you again, I'm sorry."

"Did you...did you get him?" she asked, allowing Ray to help her to a sitting position. Ray looked blankly at her. "Josh, did you get him?"

"He ran off," Ray pulled her into a hug, carefully avoiding the bruise that was quickly developing on the side of her head.

Jessica pulled away from him. "Go after him!" she said, he started to protest, "for goodness sake Ray, I'm fine," she glanced at Lisa, "we're fine, you need to stop him."

Ray broke his hold on her. What was he thinking? Of course he should be going after him. The sight of her laying on the floor like that had completely made him lose all his senses, all except the urge to take care of the girl he loved. "But...but..." he got to his feet, she seemed to be OK, she seemed to not be that badly hurt, considering what had happened. He tried to clear his head, when he was distracted by barking and the sound of the front door crashing open as Fraser kicked it in.

"Ray, Ray, Ray, RAY!" Fraser came running into the room with Dief at his heels. "Good grief Ray, what happened?" Fraser briefly put a concerned hand on his friend's shoulder and then dropped to his knees between the two young women. "Lisa?" he gently moved her arms away from their position clamped tightly around her body and gasped as her shirt lifted slightly, revealing some nasty looking bruises. "Lie still," he instructed. Then he turned his attentions to Jessica. "How long was she unconscious?" he asked Ray.

"Er, er, I dunno, less than a minute, just a few seconds, twenty maybe...or thirty..." Ray ran his hands roughly through his hair, he really didn't have a clue, it could have been hours for all he remembered...why was Fraser asking stupid questions? "Josh Reitman, did ya see him?" Ray asked his buddy urgently.

"I'm sorry Ray," replied Fraser, looking into Jessica's eyes. Ray muttered an expletive under his breath and ran out of the house. Fraser called after him, even though he knew Ray was already out of earshot. "Diefenbaker alerted me that you were in trouble, but unfortunately he was unaware of the exact details of your predicament."

Dief yapped a reply in his defence. How could he possibly have known...he was in the car? His lupine instincts had sensed trouble so he'd run to get the Mountie. He may have mastered lip reading and selective hearing, but his psychic abilities were sadly lacking.

"Thank you Dief," retorted Fraser, not in the mood to argue with the wolf, "I realise you were "in the car"," he mimed quotation marks around the last three words for emphasis, "but perhaps if you hadn't been "in the car" you may have been aware of the presence of the fugitive in the immediate vicinity." Sometimes Diefenbaker's laziness was incomprehensible to him.

Fortunately for Fraser, Dief wasn't in the mood for arguing either so he ran out after Ray, eager to prove his lupine senses hadn't been softened by city life, as Fraser helped Jessica into a chair. "There are no obvious signs of a concussion," he said, glancing over his shoulder as his wolf disappeared, "but you should be examined by a doctor, it's notoriously difficult to accurately predict the effects of a head injury."

Outside, Ray ran about randomly, but Reitman was long gone of course. Diefenbaker studied his behaviour, somewhat puzzled. The Mountie's friend had always had a habit of wasting valuable energy, he never seemed to be at rest, but the wolf had never seen him quite like this before? All sense of rational thought seemed to have disappeared now. Dief raced after him, barking loudly, but he'd never been able to communicate effectively with anyone other than Fraser, so his suggestions and opinions fell on deaf ears.

A short while later, Jessica and Lisa were both feeling a little better and Fraser had been doing his best to calm Ray down. "He can't have got far," said Fraser, "we must get to the hospital, I'm particularly concerned about Lisa. While we're there we can talk to Brett again and..."

"No Fraser, all we keep doin' is talkin'. We should be...I dunno...doin' somethin'," sighed Ray, exasperated.

"Josh returned here for a reason, our priority at this juncture has to be protecting Lisa now," said Fraser, calmly, "and now Jessica has also become a potential target."

Jessica, tried to stand up and speak, but immediately regretted her decision. OK, so maybe she didn't feel as good as she'd hoped just yet. "Benton," she said quietly, "please, Lisa and I will be fine I'm sure. Ray's right, you guys should be out there looking for him, not babysitting us."

Fraser was about to protest at the 'babysitting' comment, but Ray spoke first. "But...I love you," he said, pleadingly. There was a moment of silence. Jessica was shocked at such a heartfelt declaration. She struggled to get to her feet again and Ray rushed forward to help her. He was shaking now, he thought she was going to run out of the room so he gripped her arms tightly. His head was spinning..._Please don't leave me...What the hell was I thinking? _He sighed and closed his eyes. He could have kicked himself in the head, now he'd blown it completely, he thought, totally misread all the signs again.

"Ray?" Jessica asked, concern evident in her voice. He fluttered open his eyes and her heart almost broke at the pain she saw in them. She'd never seen that before, something had caused it, she didn't know what, but someone had hurt him in the past. Maybe one day he'd tell her about it. She wanted to be the one to heal him. She smiled and lifted a hand to his face. "I love you too," she whispered and then, pressing her lips to his, kissed him delicately. She could almost feel the tension leaving his body and her own physical pain was forgotten in that moment.

Now they were lost in each other. In their minds they were alone in the room, there was no Fraser and no Lisa, there was only the two of them. They pressed their bodies together as Jessica broke away from the kiss and just let Ray hold her, resting her head on his shoulder.

Lisa was preoccupied with her own troubles so her mind was focussed elsewhere, but Fraser turned away to look out of the window, acutely aware of respecting his friend's privacy. He could see that Jessica was being totally genuine and he hoped that she could be the one, the woman that Ray so deserved, the one that would make him happy, bring him back from the dark places he knew his friend's mind still visited occasionally.

Fraser allowed them time, but eventually he had to interrupt, they couldn't afford to wait much longer. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat and Ray smiled into Jessica's shoulder as he came back to reality. "Sorry buddy," he said to Fraser, feeling his face flush with embarrassment. Jessica giggled and bit down on her lower lip, looking deep into Ray's eyes like a giddy schoolgirl as he stood back.

"Um, hospital," said Fraser, picking his hat up from the chair where he'd left it and helping Lisa to her feet.

"Yeah," agreed Ray, nodding furiously.

Jessica nodded too. "And then promise me you'll go out and do some real Police work," she said, finally able to make eye contact with Fraser.

Fraser and Ray exchanged a glance and then looked back to her and nodded, a little reluctantly.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Ray was pacing around the squad room at the Twenty Seventh Precinct and it was terribly distracting to Fraser. He'd had to get used to so many distractions since he'd come to Chicago, but Ray's pacing could be worse than any neon sign, any low hum from an air conditioning unit, even the constant traffic noise was occasionally more therapeutic. "Ray, Ray, Ray, RAY!" Fraser rarely became exasperated with anyone other than the ghost of his father, but Ray was trying his patience.

"Fraser, he kicked her in the head," Ray stopped pacing and closed his eyes, trying to purge the violent image from his mind. "I...I say that all the time." The corners of his mouth twitched into an ironic smile.

Fraser turned and put a supportive hand on his shoulder. "Ray, it wasn't your fault."

"I guess we should be grateful that you don't say 'shoot 'em in the head'," Francesca said, without turning away from her computer screen.

Ray shook himself free of Fraser's grasp and angrily took a step forward. If Frannie had been anyone else Ray would have dragged her out of her seat by her shoulders and thrown her up against the wall and the air would be turning blue with the expletives he would be hissing in her face.

Fraser put himself between his friends. "Francesca," he said, with a stern warning look to Ray, "would you be so kind as to run that sequence again please?" It was enough to diffuse Ray's anger and instead he studied the CCTV footage on the screen with Fraser. It had been filmed outside a nightclub a few months ago. The Chicago PD Vice Squad had raided the place, but someone had pulled a gun and in the confusion, mistakes had been made. Josh Reitman had been arrested along with several others, but the State's Attorney's Office had been unable to pursue a prosecution in his and several other cases.

"I know the doc said she's OK," sighed Ray, calmer now, "no concussion, just like you said and, er, now she's with the old lady. She's probably more at risk from OD-ing on cake than she is from Reitman." Ray squinted at the screen as he spoke.

Fraser frowned. "I'm really not sure that one can overdose on cakes Ray, although some recipes do call for an unnecessarily high sugar content, which I'm sure is..."

"Fraser!" Ray interrupted him, throwing his hands in the air in mock despair, "I was kiddin' OK?"

"Ah, of course," Fraser nodded and turned his attention back to the blurry CCTV images being replayed.

"Frannie, play the other tape again, the more recent one," requested Ray and Francesca changed the tapes.

"That's most definitely Josh Reitman again," said Fraser, puzzled.

"Makes sense," said Ray with a sigh, "Vice already picked him up twice before and Brett said he's out most nights, so, er, I guess we know where he's goin'."

"It's a shame you weren't the judge on that case Frase," Francesca noted, "it was thrown out for lack of evidence."

"Do ya really think he's hidin' out at a strip joint buddy?" asked Ray.

"Not necessarily," replied Fraser, "but one of the employees may be able to assist with our enquiries. You've studied the psychological profiles of people who frequent such establishments, we know how regular clientele will confide in the, um, dancers. They regard them as friends."

"That is so sad," noted Francesca, turning to look at Fraser, "but making friends with strippers isn't against the law. They're not all perverts, just lonely guys." She smiled seductively and he sighed silently to himself. Her comment about loneliness hadn't completely gone over his head. However, not every man was so lonely they'd simply throw themselves at the first woman who paid them any interest, he thought to himself.

"Yeah some of those girls are good at bein' a friend," nodded Ray, "especially if ya stuff enough dollar bills in their..."

"Ray, we are in mixed company," Fraser scolded, secretly glad of Ray's derogatory interruption.

Ray grinned at Francesca as she spun round and clicked a few keys on her keyboard. He always found it amusing how his buddy felt the need to protect her honour. Maybe he was just doing it for Vecchio's sake, or maybe it was just that Canadian chivious...chilvious...oh, what was that word again...

"Are you guys gonna check out some of these clubs?" Francesca asked, handing Ray a printout of addresses.

"I guess so," Ray took the paper and scanned down the list. "Fraser's right, some of the hookers might recognise the creep."

"I believe the correct term is exotic dancers," corrected Fraser, adding, "a perfectly legal occupation."

Ray grinned at his buddy. "Oh yeah, sure, like you're, er, suddenly an expert. OK Fraser, let's go hit some strip joints, but ya gotta go home and change first, you look like a neon sign in that gear, we gotta try to look like, y'know, normal guys."

Francesca spluttered in an overly dramatic fashion. "Well that's going to be hard for you Ray..." she looked at him and smirked.

"Oh hardy har har..." Ray sneered back at her. He grabbed his coat from where he'd thrown it on a nearby desk. "C'mon buddy, we'll stop in at the Consulate."

Fraser picked up his hat and began to follow Ray out of the squad room. "I really don't see the need to change my clothes," he said, glancing down at his red tunic as they walked down the stairs, "when I visited exotic dancing clubs with Ray Vecchio my attire didn't appear to cause offence to anyone?"

Ray stopped dead in his tracks, one foot hovering over the penultimate step. He grabbed the handrail and spun round, his mouth wide open in surprise. "You went to strip clubs with Vecchio?" he asked incredulously.

"Only in a strictly official capacity," replied Fraser, somewhat indignantly. "You see, one of the dancers dropped her lucky rabbit's foot and while Ray and I were hiding in her closet we discovered that her boyfriend talked in his sleep, revealing details of criminal activity he was engaged in, so we were able to..."

"Fraser!" Ray held up his hands to stop his buddy speaking, "I don't wanna know any more, OK?"

"Sorry Ray," Fraser replied, tugging his left earlobe, "but you really should take some time to familiarise yourself with all of Ray Vecchio's old cases, considering your current position."

"Yeah," Ray replied sarcastically, "I'll do that Fraser, but, er, can we go catch us a bad guy first?" Dief barked, apparently agreeing with Ray.

"Oh yes of course, I'm sorry," Fraser nodded profusely and the three of them ran out to the GTO.

xXx

"Thank you kindly," Fraser smiled to the doorman as he ushered them inside.

Ray tucked his badge into his jeans pocket. "Fraser, loosen up will ya," he said, shouting to be heard over the loud music, "everyone knew you were a cop in that last club."

"I'm sorry Ray," replied Fraser, staring at the floor and trying desperately to avoid looking at the scantily clad girls, "but I'm afraid I'm a little uncomfortable in these establishments."

Ray laughed. "Yeah I noticed," he said, "now just let me do the talkin' this time, OK?"

"Understood," nodded Fraser.

They walked over to the bar and Ray ordered two beers. He handed one to Fraser who reluctantly took it. "Just hold it Fraser," said Ray, "ya don't have to actually drink any of it, but no one comes to a place like this and drinks, er, mineral water, y'know."

Fraser nodded and clinked his beer bottle to Ray's. "Cheers," he said and lifted the bottle to his mouth, carefully avoiding allowing any of the contents to go anywhere near his lips. He lowered the bottle and tapped the side of his nose, winking as he did so. Ray's head dropped to the bar with a bang. This was going to be a long night.

"Hi boys," a West Coast accent drew Ray back from his despair. He lifted his head and met the gaze of a tall, dark haired young woman. She was wearing nothing but a shimmering bikini and high heeled sandals. "Anything I can help you with?" she asked, smiling at them.

Fraser cleared his throat. "Good evening Miss," he began, his face flushing with embarrassment at the amount of bare flesh on display.

"Hi," Ray interrupted quickly, "actually we were, er, lookin' for a friend of ours, a guy named Reitman, Josh Reitman."

The girl shook her head. "Sorry," she shrugged, "never heard of him. Anyway, I'm on stage in ten minutes," she stepped forward, smiling and tapped her index finger seductively on Fraser's chest, "I'll save you a seat in the front row." With that she turned and strutted off.

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary," Fraser called after her, but she couldn't hear him.

Ray shook his head. It had been much like this in the first club they'd been in too, although he and Fraser were both fairly certain that the staff had all been telling them the truth when they'd said they didn't know Josh Reitman. "The photo Fraser," Ray said to his partner in exasperation, "ya didn't show her the photo."

"Ah, oh, of course," Fraser cleared his throat again and ran his index finger around the collar of his blue denim shirt. "I'm sorry Ray, I was a little, um, flustered."

"Buddy, ya gotta relax, OK?" said Ray moving away from the bar, "they're just doin' a job, y'know, they just want yer money."

Fraser nodded and followed Ray to another part of the club. They scanned the people starting to gather around the stage, just in case Reitman had been stupid enough to come here, but they couldn't see him anywhere. The lights on the stage came up and the young woman who had spoken to them at the bar walked onto the stage, together with a blonde girl wearing an identical bikini. Fraser stood with his back straight and faked taking another swig of beer.

Ray couldn't help a small laugh at his partner's awkwardness. He looked around the club to see if there was anyone else they could ask about Reitman. Normally he would have been enjoying the show, but this evening he wasn't the slightest bit interested in watching scantily clad girls. All he could think of was Jessica...I bet she looks hot in a gold bikini, he thought to himself, his eyes glazing over slightly as his thoughts wandered back to the woman he had declared his love for only hours earlier.

"Come on Son, don't be such a prude."

Fraser jumped at the sound of his father's voice and covered his face with his hand. "I'm not a prude," retorted the younger Mountie.

"I never said ya were?" Ray was a little surprised at the statement.

"Ah, no, of course you didn't," replied Fraser, glaring over at his father's ghost. He was in full dress uniform as usual and was standing almost to attention, watching the dancing show.

"There's nothing wrong with admiring the female form you know," Bob Fraser continued. "The blonde one has a particularly fine pair of..."

"Enough!" Fraser exclaimed, before his father had a chance to finish his sentence.

"Fraser, we gotta stay a while longer," Ray frowned at his buddy, "we need to find out if anyone knows Reitman."

"Yes, yes of course," Fraser nodded profusely and slowly drew his left thumbnail across his eyebrow. "I'm sorry Ray."

"Your mother had a great body," Bob was smiling now, lost in his memories.

Fraser spun around so that his back was to Ray. "Dad," he hissed, "I really don't want to hear this."

"Of course she never did anything like this," Bob continued undeterred, "for one thing it was far too cold in the Territories to be dressed like that...unfortunately," he nodded towards the stage, where the two dancers were draping themselves over chairs and kicking their legs high into the air, "although we found ways to keep warm Son."

"Good lord, just listen to yourself!" Fraser didn't even think about who heard him now, "is it natural for someone in your condition to be thinking about sex?"

Ray had no idea what his buddy was talking about now. "In my condition?" he asked. Even though the music was loud, Fraser had raised his voice to his father so much that Ray had heard him anyway. He was beginning to get concerned, perhaps bringing Fraser here had been a bad idea after all, it was screwing with his head or something.

"Dead you mean?" Bob finally took his eyes off the stage and looked at his son. "Just because I'm dead Son, it doesn't mean I don't still get certain...feelings."

Fraser closed his eyes and counted to ten. He hoped that when he opened them his father's ghost would be gone. He was disappointed. "I don't want to know about your feelings," he hissed at the ghost.

"Hey buddy," Ray looked at his friend with sad eyes. He had no idea where all this was coming from, but something had clearly upset Fraser. He couldn't work out what he'd done, but it was most likely his fault, he assumed. "Er, I thought you and I were OK talkin' about stuff. I mean, I know it makes ya uncomfortable sometimes, but y'know, it really helps me to have someone..."

"Great scot Ray, I wasn't talking about you," Fraser suddenly realised how it had sounded to Ray. "I'm sorry, I was talking to...I mean, thinking about someone else entirely." He gave his father such a dirty look that the deceased Mountie was quite shocked.

"Alright Son, alright, I understand," said the ghost, somewhat huffily, "I'll just enjoy the show, you and the Yank have Police work to be getting on with anyway. You haven't got time to sit here staring at half naked women, there's a fugitive on the loose."

Fraser was about to snap back another retort when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hi," a female voice snapped his mind back to the present. He turned round and saw a girl carrying a tray of empty glasses and bottles. "You guys need anything?" she asked.

"Ah, well perhaps you would be kind enough to study this photograph Miss," said Fraser, placing his bottle, still full of beer, on the tray and pulling a photograph of Josh Reitman from his pocket. _You see Dad_, he thought silently, _Police work_.

"Have ya seen that guy in here?" asked Ray, "he's an old buddy of mine."

"No, sorry," replied the girl abruptly and she turned and walked away.

Ray and Fraser exchanged a glance, they were both thinking the same thing...she was lying. Ray was about to follow her when another of the girls approached them.

"Why are you two guys all alone?" she asked them, thrusting her barely covered chest in Fraser's general direction. Fraser almost wished he still had his beer, he may have considered drinking it for real this time. "You look like you need cheering up?" She smiled seductively at Ray and began to dance for them, raising her hands above her head, gyrating her hips and pouting.

Fraser didn't know where to look and Ray wasn't sure what was funnier, his buddy's reaction or the girl's desperate attempts to extract money out of them.

Fraser glanced over his shoulder, but the other girl had disappeared from sight. He looked helplessly at Ray, they really needed to talk to the other girl, she may know something about Reitman.

Ray grinned at the dancing girl. "Sorry, but we were, er, just leavin'," he lied. He took out his wallet, pulled out a few dollars and then, folding the notes in half, he tucked them into her panties. Fraser nearly died of embarrassment. Reasonably happy with her reward, the girl left and went to find a new audience.

"She's gone, ya can open your eyes now buddy," Ray said, laughing.

Fraser tugged at his left ear. "You know, I'm not entirely incapable of appreciating this sort of thing," he said, frowning slightly. Ray nodded, understandingly. "However, at this juncture our priority has to be speaking to the other young lady, she may have a lead for us."

"You're right," agreed Ray, looking around. He couldn't see her amongst the crowds at first, but then Fraser spotted her.

"There she is Ray," he said, nodding towards the other side of the dancefloor. He started walking over to her and Ray followed, but as they got closer they realised that the man standing next to her was being a little too friendly. She was trying to clear the table, but his hands were everywhere, blatantly breaking the 'no touching' rule of the club.

"Get off me," she said, batting his hand away from her backside for the third time. "I'll call security over here," she warned.

"Come on, I'm just bein' friendly," replied the man, leering at her and attempting to massage her shoulders, but his hands had barely touched her skin, when he felt two heavy hands on his own shoulders.

"Excuse me Sir, but I believe the lady asked you to leave her alone," Fraser said authoritatively, as he and Ray pulled him away from her.

"Hey I wasn't doin' nothin' wrong?" the man protested, shaking himself free.

"Ya were bein' a creep," sneered Ray, "now get outta here." He nodded towards the door.

The man laughed. "I paid to get in here so I'm stayin' right here," he said and then, to prove his determination, he grabbed the young woman around her waist and pulled her towards him. She let out a small scream as she attempted to maintain her balance.

Ray had had enough now. "OK pal, I'm gonna count to ten and I want ya outta this place," he reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulling his badge out just enough so that the man could see exactly what it was, "or I arrest ya for sexual assault. One...two...three..."

The man's face went white and he opened his mouth to say something.

"Four...five..." said Fraser before the man had a chance to speak.

The man obviously thought better of starting anything after all and instead he stormed out.

The girl smiled at Ray and Fraser. "Thanks," she said in a shaky voice. "Normally I can handle myself y'know, but ever since..." her voice trailed off completely.

"Ever since what?" Fraser prompted, gently.

"I knew you guys were cops," the girl shifted the subject.

Ray shrugged. "How did ya know?" he asked.

"I dated a cop once," she replied, "besides I figured you guys would come looking for Ricky one day."

Fraser and Ray exchanged a puzzled glance.

"The creep in your photograph," she clarified, "you'd better come with me," and she led them off to a quiet corner.

They sat at a table and Fraser brought out the photograph of Josh Reitman and placed it on the table in front of her. "My name is Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP and this is Detective Vecchio of the Chicago PD," he said, "Is this definitely the man you know as Ricky?" he asked.

The girl nodded. "Sally, Sally Graham," she introduced herself. "That's him for sure, he used to come in here all the time, he couldn't stick to the no touching rule either." She shuddered a little. "I haven't seen him for a few weeks I guess. I knew he was into trouble, he was always drunk, or stoned, or high on something. This is a clean place, the boss likes to keep everything legit, he looks after us girls, this club has a good reputation."

"Does he have anything to do with why you felt so disturbed just now when that gentleman was pestering you?" asked Fraser, he could tell she was still a little shaken.

Sally shrugged. "Maybe? I don't really know..." she stopped to take a slow deep breath.

"If ya know anythin', please, let us decide if it's, er, important or not," said Ray, "this guy is a bastard, he thinks it's OK to hurt kids and women."

"Kids?" Sally looked even more horrified now. She sighed. "OK," she said quietly, "but this is just me...I mean, I don't know anything for certain, I could have this all wrong."

"It's alright," encouraged Fraser.

"Well, I was friends with this girl from here, one of the other dancers," began Sally, "Barbara Letz, she called herself Barbie, she was kind to me when I first started here, showed me the ropes, she taught me a lot about how to deal with the customers."

"What happened?" asked Ray.

"She disappeared, never showed up for work one evening," explained Sally, "I tried calling her, left messages on her machine, but I never heard from her again. Then they found her body..." her voice hitched and she looked away to compose herself.

"I'm sorry," said Ray. "So, er, ya think this Ricky had somethin' to do with all that?"

"I don't know," replied Sally, "she was one of his favourites, she could handle him. I used to avoid him if I saw him come in, but she didn't mind, I think he paid well, y'know and, um, I think he was one of her private clients too."

"Private clients?" Fraser didn't understand at first, but then he suddenly he realised what she was saying. "Oh," he said, quietly, glancing at Ray.

Sally sighed. "Some of the girls do it. The boss goes mad if he finds out, but I guess they take the chance, for the money, y'know?"

"Understood," Fraser nodded.

Suddenly Sally stood up from her chair. "Oh god, the boss, he's looking over here. I'm not supposed to be sitting and chatting," she said, a look of mild panic on her face, "I'll get into trouble."

"Then dance," suggested Ray, "we can still talk." He looked across at his buddy who nodded in agreement.

Sally smiled, a little embarrassed. "OK," she said and Fraser cleared his throat as she began to perform in front of them.

"What makes you think that the man in the photograph was involved in the death of your friend?" asked Fraser.

"Just timing, I guess," replied Sally, leaning forward so that they could hear her and shimmying her shoulders. "It was five weeks or something after she disappeared before they found her body, she was miles away from here, on the road out towards the lakes." Sally turned around and started to shake her hips from side to side, causing the tassels on her bikini bottom to swish about. Then she spun back around. "Ever since she disappeared, Ricky started acting weird, weirder than normal I mean, like he was trying to be nice or something...it didn't suit him, that's for sure. It was even more creepy than normal. Then the night after they found her, Ricky came in here for the last time, I haven't seen him since, but that last night he was completely off his head on something. Crack I think. Anyway, he totally freaked me out."

"Is it possible that he was simply grieving for her?" suggested Fraser. "People deal with loss in many different ways."

Sally squatted down in front of them, balancing on her high heels and ran her hands seductively through her hair. "You could be right, I could be making too much of this," she replied, "but the cops have no idea what happened to her, I don't think they even have a cause of death yet." She stood up again and spun herself around on one leg, her arms high in the air and threw her head back.

"Thank you kindly for your help," said Fraser, "we will most certainly look into the information you have provided and if you think of anything else, please contact the Twenty Seventh precinct, or I can be reached at the Canadian Consulate."

Ray pulled his wallet out of his pocket and got out some cash. He looked over at Fraser. "Er, ya don't have yer hat do ya," he sighed.

Fraser saw Ray's wallet in his hands and looked apologetic. "No, sorry Ray, I'm afraid I don't have any money on me."

Ray laughed and thrust a few folded notes into his buddy's hand. Sally saw what they were doing and looked mildly horrified. She stopped dancing and held up her hands. "Oh no, I couldn't possibly accept your money," she said, "just find out what happened to Barbie, if Ricky did kill her...just find him, please."

Ray smiled. "Hey, ya want this to look good for yer boss, don't ya?" he said. Sally glanced over to the table where the plump, bearded man was still sitting and she nodded to Ray somewhat reluctantly.

"It's only fair that you are recompensed for the work you've done this evening," said Fraser, his face quickly turning redder than a beetroot, "besides, I thought your dancing was most...enjoyable. Thank you kindly." With that he cleared his throat, leaned forward and, hooking the elastic of her panties with one finger, he carefully tucked in the money Ray had given him.

"Yeah," agreed Ray, doing the same with a few more dollars, "we'll call ya if we need more info and, er, if ya happen to see Reit...er, Ricky, don't go anywhere near him, OK? Call the Two Seven or call 911. Thanks for the dance," he grinned at her.

Sally nodded. "OK, thanks," she said, "I'm only doing this because I really need the money. I'm a first year med student, but my Mom's sick and her insurance won't pay out for all of her treatment."

Ray and Fraser were quite taken aback. Ray immediately pulled out another couple of bills from his wallet. "Here," he said, when Sally tried to refuse he grinned again. "Don't worry, I'll claim it on expenses."

Sally laughed and walked off. Fraser and Ray got up and headed towards the door. "Come on," said Ray, "I guess we need to dig out the case file for Barbara Letz."


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

"Hmmm, I see," Fraser held the telephone receive tightly to his ear with his shoulder and scribbled down some notes on a piece of paper. "So the body lay undiscovered for several weeks?" He listened to the reply. "Hmmm," he said again. "The cause of death was recorded as unknown...I know you don't like to do that Mort...what about tissue samples?"

Fraser could hear Mort shuffling through the autopsy report. He knew that with the state of decomposition of Barbara Letz's body, the chances of obtaining any useful blood or tissue samples for laboratory testing was slim. "Oh, so you were able to test for some things? That's promising...and were the samples kept?" As Mort answered, Fraser began to allow himself a small amount of hope that they would be able to find traces of the same date rape drug that Josh Reitman had used on Lisa. So far there was absolutely no evidence that he was responsible for the death of Miss Letz, only the suspicions of her friend at the club where they worked, but if they could get something from the autopsy then Reitman would be facing a murder charge too. "Yes, of course, I'm sorry, of course it's standard procedure in an unexplained death," Fraser did know that, but they hadn't had a lot of luck so far in this case, so he'd half been expecting bad news. "If you could arrange the additional tests please Mort, I would be most grateful." Fraser nodded as Mort, naturally, agreed to do so.

Then Fraser smiled a broad smile. "No of course I haven't forgotten," he said, "I'm looking forward to it immensely. In my opinion, Verdi's Otello exudes far more emotion when sung in the original Italian than when translated into any other language. I once saw a performance by the Tuktoyuktuk Amateur Operatic, Ballet and Circus Skills Society which was sung part in English and part in Inukitut and I have to say, it was utterly devoid of..." he paused as he thought of a suitable word. He finally decided on... "passion." He cleared his throat as a word he rarely used left his lips. He refocused his mind back to apprehending Josh Reitman. "Well, thank you kindly for your assistance," he said and put the receiver back in its place, sitting back in his chair and stroking Diefenbaker on the head absentmindedly.

"Constable," Inspector Thatcher's voice startled him somewhat. He'd been aware of her presence outside his office for the past three seconds, but had assumed she was busy with something. "Who were you talking to?" she demanded to know.

Fraser leapt to his feet and stood to attention. He'd obviously done something to upset her, but he knew he hadn't been late submitting any reports so he wasn't sure what it was this time. "Sir?" he queried. He wasn't sure if he'd understood her question.

"Just now, on the telephone," snapped the Inspector. "Was it someone you met last night?"

"Um..." Fraser was very confused now. He cleared his throat and tried to tell her that he had been talking to Mort, but he got so tongue tied around her sometimes, especially when she was in one of these moods, that the words simply wouldn't come out. "Um, last night...er, no..." he eventually spluttered out, scratching at his eyebrow rapidly with his thumbnail.

"I know you went to some sort of nightclub," the Inspector sighed, "Turnbull told me, he said you and Detective Vecchio were going out for the evening. Now of course you can do whatever you like in your private life Constable, but when you're spending work time on the telephone to some girl you met at a club..." she stopped talking and stared at the floor, her heart pounding. If only their relationship wasn't so awkward, she thought, if only she wasn't his superior officer then he wouldn't have had to resort to picking up girls in clubs. Perhaps she should kiss him again now? Perhaps it wasn't too late? Perhaps...

"Sir, I was talking to Mort about an autopsy," Fraser had finally found his voice.

"Mort?" she swallowed hard. "An autopsy?" The last word came out as more of a squeak. She took a deep breath, realising that she'd made a terrible mistake. "But you said...you were talking about...about passion?"

Fraser thought for a moment and replayed the conversation in his head. "Oh," he said, as he began to see how this misunderstanding had arisen, "I was talking about Otello." Inspector Thatcher wore a puzzled look. "The opera," Fraser explained. "Mort and I have tickets for next Thursday."

"Oh," she said quietly, wishing that Turnbull would come rushing in at that very moment with an urgent Consular matter that required her immediate attention...such as they'd run out of paper clips, or someone was on the telephone asking for directions to the library. Turnbull did not appear.

"I was out last evening with Detective Vecchio," Fraser continued, feeling that he had to explain himself, although he was not entirely sure why, "but we were not visiting the establishments for leisure purposes, we had reason to believe we may uncover some information leading to the whereabouts of a fugitive."

"Oh," Thatcher's voice was a little stronger now, "and did you? Uncover some information I mean."

"Yes Sir, we did," replied Fraser, "in fact I was on the telephone to Mort following up on a lead which suggests that the man may, in fact, have committed a murder."

"I see," the Inspector had finally pulled herself together, well almost. "In that case, you'd better get on with it. Dismissed."

"This is my office, Sir," said Fraser quietly.

Inspector Thatcher held her breath for a moment. She still wasn't thinking clearly. "Of course it is," she said, letting her breath go all at once, "what I meant to say...what I meant to say, was...was that, um, that I was just leaving." With that she turned on her heels and half ran out of the door. Fraser looked down at Dief and shrugged. Some women were a total mystery to him.

xXx

Ray squeezed Jessica's hand before reluctantly letting it go and knocking on the door of Mikey's hospital room. He could already see through the tiny window that Brett was still sitting by his bedside, in almost the same position as he had been for the past few days. Ray slowly opened the door. "Hi," he said quietly and Brett forced a small smile. "Um, how is he this morning?" asked Ray.

"He was awake again earlier," Brett's smile grew a little. "Not for long and he recognised me again, but...you know, the doctors are still telling me that this is all to be expected and I just have to give him time..." his voice trailed off. He was clearly finding all of this incredibly difficult, which was completely understandable. The poor guy's whole world had been turned upside down, Ray really felt for him. A nurse bustled her way into the room and started to note down some readings from the machines that were supporting Mikey's injured body.

"Look, er, I know this is not a good time," said Ray, "but, er, I gotta ask ya a few more questions about your brother. We should go somewhere more private."

Brett nodded. "Sure," he said. He got up from chair and kissed his son on the forehead, then followed Ray and Jessica out of the room.

"Where's Lisa?" asked Jessica as she opened the door of the side room she often used.

"She was in a lot of pain this morning," explained Brett as he took a seat in the room, "they think one of her kidneys might have been bruised or something yesterday, y'know, when..." his voice cracked as he thought of what his brother had done. "She's having a scan now."

"I see," replied Jessica, glancing at Ray. She went to the water cooler in the corner and filled a plastic cup with water for Brett.

"Thanks," he said quietly, taking the cup from her and sipping at it. "I'm guessing you haven't found him yet?"

"Er, no," replied Ray, apologetically, "but there are people out lookin' for him, we'll find him, don't worry." Brett nodded slowly. "Look, I'm real sorry to have to tell ya this," continued Ray, "but, er, we think Josh may have been involved in a homicide. Can ya think back a few weeks, two or three months maybe, was he actin' weird at all. Quiet perhaps, out of character, y'know?"

Brett's face had gone very pale. "Oh god," he half whispered. "Um, I guess, I mean, I don't know really? He was taking a lot of drugs and drinking...he kinda hasn't done that so much in the last few weeks? Maybe I...if I'd said something to him...or done something...did he really kill someone?" Brett brought a hand to his mouth, he felt sick now.

"We don't know anything for certain at the moment," Jessica said, encouragingly, "Fraser's looking into a few details now." Brett looked at her, his eyes said all that needed to be said. "I'm so sorry," she added.

"We were thinkin'," began Ray, eager to get as much information out of him as he could before the poor guy completely lost it, "he probably needs to get money, d'ya know if he has savings?"

Brett shook his head. "He's got nothing. He's never really had a proper job and any money he gets just goes...drugs I guess. Dad bought him the apartment, it was the only time our Dad ever spent money on him. It was just after Mum died, I guess he thought maybe if Josh had a secure roof over his head, he'd sort himself out or something? I know Dad cut Josh out of his will after that. He's basically disowned him." Brett bowed his head, sadly. He loved his father, but perhaps his attitude since their mother had died hadn't helped the situation.

"Are things that bad between him and your Dad?" asked Jessica, putting a supportive hand on his back.

"Yes," replied Brett quietly. "Josh has always been in some sort of trouble, ever since we were kids. He was always the smallest kid in the neighbourhood, but he was the one who was at the centre of everything. He could talk his way out of most of it though, he'd blame anyone and everyone and that really didn't make him popular with the other kids. Either that or he'd just run. He's got some speed for a little guy, you'd turn around and he'd gone. He often got away with it too, but my folks knew, they knew what he was like and a couple of times my Dad dragged him down to the cops to own up. Josh never learnt though, I guess my Dad's just had enough. He's already told me that I get everything when he dies. I told him I didn't want his money."

"Why?" asked Ray.

"Because I think Josh deserves his share. My Dad made a lot of money in the Seventies, he had his own construction company, built it up from nothing and we didn't get to see him too much, he was always working, y'know. So I figured that the money should be split equally between the two of us. Maybe if he had money, Josh wouldn't be like this? If his life wasn't such a struggle, maybe if he was rich, perhaps he wouldn't feel like he needed to take drugs?"

"Or maybe he'd just be a rich crack head?" suggested Ray, flippantly. Jessica shot him a look, Ray needed to maintain a level of sympathy for Brett, despite his brother's actions. Ray felt a little guilty for saying that.

Brett shrugged. "You're probably right. After all this I just...I just don't know any more? Why has he done all of this?" Brett closed his eyes again and thought about everything that had happened. He'd spent most of his life defending his brother. Defending him from his Dad, from schoolyard bullies, from debt collectors and various dodgy types who'd demanded money that they said Josh owed them for drugs, or gambling or whatever it was. He wasn't going to do that anymore. Not now. This time Josh had hurt the people he loved, his wife and son and maybe he was even a murderer too? This had gone too far. Suddenly it all became too much for Brett and he broke down, sobbing into his hands.

"It's OK," Jessica tried to soothe him, "they're going to find him and then he'll get the help he needs."

"Help?" Brett queried and Ray was just as confused. What possible help could anyone offer a murderer? Brett shuddered at the thought of what his brother's fate might be.

Jessica glanced at Ray. "Look, I know he's done some terrible things," she began, touching the side of her head tenderly. The bruising and swelling had gone down a little since yesterday, but she wasn't going to forget what he'd done to her in a hurry. "It's just that we did talk for a short time yesterday and...well I'm not an expert or anything, my degree's in child psychology, but from what he was saying and from his behaviour, I would say that he's ill, mentally ill I mean. He's not a psychopath or anything, I don't mean that at all, but he has a recognisable pattern of behaviour that would suggest more than one diagnosable condition. With the right treatment, drug rehabilitation and the right medication and therapy, maybe there's a different personality underneath, someone just needs to help him find the real Josh."

Brett took in everything she said, he really hoped she was right. He had no idea what was going to happen now, but he saw a glimmer of hope in the things Jessica was saying.

Ray was quite stunned by her empathy too. He just wanted to see the guy locked up, face a jury and then get whatever sentence he deserved. It never really occurred to him that maybe the bastard needed anyone's help? "Er, I've seen a lot of, um..." he tried to think of a word that wasn't derogatory. "Criminals," he said eventually, using one of Fraser's favourites, "and I guess Jess is right."

Brett nodded slowly. He looked up at Ray and wiped his face with the back of his hand. "Please find him," he begged, "please, while there's still a chance for him. He's my brother, I love him, I can't help it and I know that sounds dumb after what he's done, but it's true."

Ray thought for a moment. He considered Fraser to be his brother and he couldn't imagine how he'd feel if Fraser ever let him down like this, if he ever betrayed him in this way. Of course he could never imagine Fraser doing anything as bad as the things Josh Reitman had done, but what if he did something else? Would he still love and stand by his brother the way Brett Reitman was standing by Josh? This was stupid of course, he was talking about Benton Fraser and there's no way he would do anything...oh, but what about that Metcalfe woman? What about everything that had happened with her? Fraser had done some really stupid things then and he'd let Ray Vecchio down badly, the real Vecchio that is and they were as close as brothers, just like he and Fraser were. Ray didn't know how he would have coped if Fraser had done those things to him and his family. Vecchio had stood by him and loved him hadn't he and then helped him get his life back together and they'd stayed as close as they were before. Ray couldn't be sure if he'd do the same? He hoped he could, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to...god he didn't want to think about this anymore, he didn't want to believe that the real Vecchio was stronger than he was. He should be grateful to Vecchio for everything he'd done for Fraser at that time, but instead he was...what...jealous? This was stupid. Fraser was always telling him that he considered both of his best friends to be equals, but Ray truly believed that wasn't really the case. If Fraser was ever forced to choose between them, Ray felt sure he'd choose the real Vecchio...wouldn't he? Suddenly he wished Fraser was here right now so they could talk about this, he could feel his emotions welling up and he couldn't afford to do this now, he had to focus on this case and the Reitman family. He had to be a cop. He took a deep breath. "I'll do everythin' I can," he said earnestly.

Brett got to his feet and they headed back to Mikey's hospital room. Jessica took Ray's hand again as they walked the short distance along the corridor. "Everything alright?" she whispered in his ear.

Of course she'd noticed him being stupid just now, thought Ray. Already she could read him like a book and he thought it was just Fraser who could do that...he'd figured it was a Mountie skill or maybe some kind of Canadian thing. Was he that open to everyone? _Maybe just to the people who care about me,_ he thought to himself and a warm smile spread across his face. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied in a quiet voice, "this case is, er, it's gettin' to me I think. The kid, the brother, it's all so, um, it's such a big mess and I'm not sure how it can ever end good for all of them, y'know?"

Jessica nodded. "I agree," she replied, sadly. "I can't wait until it's all over and they can start to look forward to the future."

Ray tugged at her hand and she stopped walking. He spun her round and looked deep into her eyes. "I can't wait until it's over either," he said, then he lowered his voice even more and leaned in close so she should hear him, "then we can spend some time together...alone. Is that selfish of me or somethin'?"

Jessica glanced over her shoulder and, seeing that Brett had disappeared back into Mikey's room, she stole a quick kiss from his lips. "That sounds wonderful," she smiled.

Just then, Lisa appeared from around the corner. She was being wheeled along in a wheelchair by a tall sour faced nurse. Jeez, thought Ray, why can't nurses be how he remembered them from when he had his tonsils out. He'd only been eight or nine, but he remembered the nurses being caring and loving, like his favourite Aunt, or a friend's Mom. They would wipe away your tears if you woke up crying or fetch you another jelly roll if you asked nicely enough, as long as one of the doctors didn't see of course.

Lisa didn't look well at all and had a drip in her arm. Her skin looks weird, thought Ray, yellowish, or something. "Hey baby," Brett leaned over and kissed his wife. "Are you OK?"

"She's meant to be resting," explained the nurse abruptly, "there is some damage to one of her kidneys so it's not functioning fully at the moment, but it's nothing that won't heal. She insisted on coming back here though."

Brett almost broke down again. His wife looked dreadful and it was all his brother's fault.

"I want to be here," said Lisa defiantly.

The nurse huffed. "Press the buzzer if you need anything," she snapped, heading for the door. Ray took that to mean...'Don't bother pressing the buzzer because you're way down my list of priorities now.' Greatness. He sneered at the back of her head as she left.

Brett wasn't really paying attention to the nurse at all. "The cops were asking if Josh had access to any money anywhere," he explained to his wife, deciding not to mention anything about his brother being wanted for a murder. "They figure he's going to need cash soon enough, but I know he hasn't got any savings. I guess I should talk to Dad, just in case he tries anything stupid. I haven't called my Dad yet..." Brett looked at Jessica for some support, he really felt like he was going to lose it again and he knew he had to stay strong in front of Lisa.

"It's going to be a difficult conversation," Jessica said sympathetically and Brett nodded.

"You don't think he'd go after Mikey's trust fund?" said Lisa in a shaky voice. Brett went stony silent.

"What trust fund?" prompted Ray.

"My Dad set up an account for Mikey, he gets the money when he's twenty one, I think there's about thirty five thousand dollars in there," explained Brett, "but no one can access it without the account book and additional ID. All the paperwork's locked away at home...I mean, at Lisa's house."

Ray and Jessica exchanged a look. "Maybe that was why he was at the house yesterday?" suggested Jessica, mild panic creeping into her voice.

Ray nodded. It made sense, it was a stupid place to go unless he had a very good reason. "So, er, maybe he'll try again?" Ray was thinking out loud. "So the, er, the bank book's at the house and what about ID, could he try to pass himself off as you Brett?"

Brett thought for a moment. "My passport's still at the house," he said, "if he found that, then I guess he could forge my signature too and get the money that way? I don't know?" Brett could feel his heard starting to beat faster now. That money was for Mikey. His Dad put a few thousand dollars in there every birthday, Mikey was his only grandchild. _Could my brother really stoop that low, _Brett contemplated. _Of course he could_, Brett closed his eyes, _he's done all these other terrible things_.

"OK, there's still a patrol in the neighbourhood," said Ray urgently, "but we should probably get back there, in case he shows up again. I'll call Fraser." Ray pulled his phone from his pocket and rang the number for the Canadian Consulate.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

"It's because he's Canadian you see," Francesca waved one hand in the air for emphasis and picked up another slice of cherry cake with the other. "They don't display their feelings like we do." She took a bite of the cake, her second slice so far today.

"I see," replied Edie York, sounding unconvinced, "but you and he have talked about it?"

"Of course we have," laughed Francesca, "I know he loves me, he just can't show it, especially not in front of other people. I think that Inspector Thatcher has a lot to do with it too, I've seen the way she looks at him. Well she can't have him, he's spoken for. He has to keep her happy though because she's his boss, but otherwise our relationship would be out in the open."

Edie frowned. That wasn't the impression she'd got from Fraser at all when they'd spoken about Francesca. She picked up a slice of cake herself, studying the consistency. I didn't mix it enough, she thought to herself. "Well, he does seem like a lovely young man," she said, eager not to upset Francesca.

"Oh he is," gushed Francesca, "he's so handsome of course, but he's so brave too. I always feel safe when we're together, he'd risk his life for me, I know he would. Do you know, he once dived into a stinking lake to drag my stupid brother out of the trunk of a car."

"The car was in a lake?" asked a slightly puzzled Edie.

"It was a stolen car, Ray thought getting in the trunk was a good idea," explained Francesca, "what an idiot. Thank God Frase was there, I did everything I could to help of course..." she realised that wasn't entirely true, but her mind wandered back to that night and as the images filled her head, the little white lie seemed perfectly acceptable. "Benton looks so good when he's dripping wet..." her voice was distant and she couldn't really speak any more, instead she just sighed.

Edie giggled, she remembered what it was like to see a handsome young man and think about what it might be like to be with him. She'd been exactly the same the first time she'd seen her future husband. Harry York had caught her eye the first time she'd seen him and she remembered how smart he'd looked in his suit and hat. She missed Harry so much. He'd looked good wet too...Edie remembered getting caught in a storm once on the way back from the picture house and he'd given her his overcoat so by the time they'd got back to his car, he was soaked to the skin. "I think I know what you mean dear," she said to Francesca.

The two women sat there for a few minutes in silence, thinking about things that Edie hadn't thought about for a long time. Francesca on the other hand thought about things like that often, every time she saw Fraser and then when he wasn't there she used her imagination. Suddenly their thoughts were interrupted by a noise. "What was that?" said Francesca, getting up from the sofa and crossing to the window.

"It sounded like something falling over," replied Edie, struggling to her feet with her walking stick. "Is it very windy out there?"

"I don't think so," said Francesca squinting into the darkness. She turned to see Edie hobbling across the room. "Edie, you shouldn't have got up," she scolded, "Benton said I was to make sure you rested. I've already let you stand up for far too long baking that delicious cake. If he finds out, he'll have to punish me..." Francesca had drifted away from reality for a moment again and she let out another sigh. Edie was a little shocked, but then the two ladies caught each other's eyes and both giggled a slightly dirty giggle as they realised what they were both thinking.

"You are a naughty young lady aren't you," smiled Edie.

Francesca feigned offence. "Naughty? Me? But I'm a good Catholic girl," she smiled, tugging her lower lip into her mouth and capturing it with her teeth. Just then another crash snapped them both back to reality and Francesca turned back to looking out of the window.

It had been raining and the ground was wet, rain was dripping from trees and lampposts and the sky was still a swirling grey. Francesca saw the Police patrol car drive past, it had been doing circuits of the neighbourhood and she knew it wouldn't be back for at least half an hour now. Edie joined her at the window. "There," she said, pointing at Lisa's house, "there's someone in there."

"Where?" Francesca was amazed at the old lady's eyesight. She squinted into the gloom and possibly saw something moving in the house, but maybe it was a trick of the light. She looked out at the road, hoping Ray's GTO was parked out there and he and Fraser were back searching the house for some reason, but there were no cars outside. "We should call Ray," Francesca began, turning back, expecting to see Edie still standing behind her, but she wasn't there. "Edie?" Francesca called out, then louder, "Edie? Where did you go?"

Then a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She spun back round to look out of the window and was stunned to see Edie York half running across the path to Lisa's house. Her walking stick was clattering on the concrete with each step and her face gave away the amount of pain it was causing her to move so fast, but she wasn't going to let anything stop her. "Oh hell," mumbled Francesca and ran out after her.

xXx

_Why is there so much junk in this house_, Josh Reitman thought to himself as he rummaged through another door. His leg hurt. He looked down and balked at the amount of blood soaking through the leg of his jeans. Maybe he shouldn't have kicked that window in, if only he hadn't lost the key he'd taken from Lisa...maybe he should have tried to pick the lock instead? No, he didn't have time for that, he knew the cops were after him, they thought he'd done all these terrible things on purpose, so did that social worker, even though she'd started off being nice to him, she was lying to him too. He knew he'd never be able to convince anyone of the truth so this was the only choice he had now. It was his money anyway, not the kid's and he really needed it now. That money was rightfully his, it wasn't his Dad's to give away, so he wasn't really stealing from a little kid, he wasn't some kind of lowlife.

Nothing. There was nothing in this one either. He yanked the drawer from the unit and threw it across the room, smashing a picture that was hanging on the wall by the door. Now there was more glass everywhere_. Just what I need_, he thought_, I'll probably cut myself and bleed to death and it'll be his fault, my Dad's fault, for trying to take away what's mine._

Where did they keep documents in this stupid house anyway? They must be in a desk drawer or a filing cabinet. Knowing Lisa I bet everything's filed in date order, or alphabetical, so what would be under? M for Mikey? T for Trust Fund? Oh why couldn't my Dad just give me my money and I wouldn't have to be wasting my time doing this? What does a nine year old need with thousands of dollars anyway, what's he going to spend it on?

Josh went into the kitchen and started opening cupboards. Perhaps they had a safe hidden in here, he wondered. Just then he heard a noise. It sounded like the front door opening? No, surely Lisa hadn't come home...she would still be at the hospital wouldn't she? Maybe it's Brett? A feeling of dread washed over him, he didn't want to face his brother now. Brett wouldn't understand, he'd blame him for everything just like their Dad always did. None of this is my fault, I just have bad luck. If people would just listen to me and do what I want then I wouldn't get into these situations.

He quietly walked out into the hallway to find the front door wide open with a key in the lock. His heart was beating faster now. What if the cops had a key? What if Brett had given them a key so they could come round here and ambush him? They could shoot him and say it was an accident. Maybe Brett has paid them to kill me? What am I going to do now?

Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement in the living room and now he was scared. He didn't want to go to jail for things that weren't his fault? No judge would understand him either..._nobody understands me._ He started to run out of the door, but then he realised he'd left his bag in the kitchen. He couldn't leave without that, everything he needed was in there. It was all that was left of his stash and he couldn't risk going back to his old dealer now so he didn't know how long it would be before he could get more stuff? He turned round but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard his name.

"Josh Reitman? Is that you? Stop right there you dreadful little man!"

Josh spun round and almost burst out laughing when he saw the old lady hobbling towards him, waving her walking stick in the air. "You're the old goat from next door!" He exclaimed. "Well I guess I should give myself up?" he continued, sarcastically holding his hands in the air. He took a step forward and tried to grab the stick out of Edie's hand, but she was having none of it.

"Oh no you don't you little toad," she said, "my Harry fought a war so that nice people like Brett and Lisa could live safely in this country and raise children. You're a disgrace to his memory."

Josh was a little shocked at her strength and determination. He shoved her back against the wall and ran for the front door again, but this time found his way blocked by a woman he'd never seen before. "Stay right there cheese bucket!" she said.

"Cheese bucket?" repeated Josh. What the hell was a cheese bucket?

"Get on your knees !" Francesca shouted louder this time. "I mean now, you piece of camel paste!"

"Camel paste? Who the hell are you?" Josh yelled back at her. "You're not a cop, you're nuts!"

"I'm not a cop yet," replied Francesca, "but I'm learning. Now get on your knees, before I kick you in the head!"

Josh started to get down on one knee, trying to convince this mad woman that he was going to do what she wanted, but before she could react he lunged at her legs, tackling her to the floor.

"Francesca!" exclaimed Edie and hit Josh across the back with her walking stick as he tried to make his escape.

"Aaahh!" Josh yelled as he fell back to his knees.

Francesca let out a moan. She'd hit the floor with quite a bang and it had knocked the wind out of her.

"I will not allow you to hurt anybody else!" shouted Edie at the top of her voice and wacked him again. "You kidnapped that lovely little boy and now he's going to be in hospital for months."

"Hey I got hurt too, look..." Josh parted his hair, just above his right ear to reveal a partly healed two inch scar. "I cut my head when I was climbing out of that car wreck."

Edie was aghast at his insensitivity. "You nearly killed your little nephew!" Another whack with her stick.

"But I did it for my brother!" he protested, "Brett would have been so pleased with me, he could have been with his son and away from that stupid bitch."

"You idiot," replied Edie, "Brett and Lisa want to be back together, they want to be a family again." She hit him again.

"Jesus!" exclaimed Josh, rubbing the back of his neck where the wooden stick had left a mark.

"And you will not blaspheme!" This time Edie jabbed the end of her stick into the man's ribs three times. He tried to scramble away, but Francesca was sitting in a heap right in front of the front door and the painful jabs just kept on coming.

"Will you get off me! You're both crazy!" Josh decided all he could do was curl up into a ball and cower under his hands.

Finally Francesca was able to get enough air in her lungs and found the strength to stand up. "OK, I've really had enough of you!" she said. She grabbed one of his hands and twisted his arm tightly behind his back. "I'm making a citizen's arrest."

At that moment Diefenbaker came running in through the door, closely followed by Fraser and Ray. Both men stopped in the doorway, stunned at the sight that met their eyes. Ray grinned at his buddy. "Looks like we're not needed here Fraser," he said.

"Indeed," agreed the Mountie.

"Don't just stand there Ray," said Francesca, sneering at him, "I could do with some handcuffs here."

Ray smirked. "Oh yeah, sure," he said and he and Fraser pulled Reitman to his feet.

Francesca was panting for breath as Ray cuffed him and read him his Miranda rights. She looked at Fraser and a huge smile grew across her face. "That was fun!" she exclaimed.


	12. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

(Two Months Later...)

"Ray, Ray, Ray, RAY!"

Ray opened one eye. "Hey baby," he half smiled. "What, er, what time is it?"

Jessica flopped back onto the pillow. She loved it when he called her his baby. "Late," she replied, "we should get up."

Ray lifted the bed sheet a little with one hand and stared down at himself. "I think I already am," he grinned.

Jess laughed. "Do you ever think about anything else?" she asked. Not that she was really complaining.

"Er, not when I got you lyin' naked in bed with me," he replied, rolling onto his side and propping his head up on his hand with his elbow, "and besides, I'm a guy and guys think about sex every, um, eleven seconds or somethin'." He reached out a hand and gently caressed the side of her face with his thumb, before slowly sliding his fingers down her body and settling his palm on her belly. "It's one of those, er, scientific facts, you ask Fraser."

"You want me to ask Ben how often he thinks about sex?" exclaimed Jessica, trying to keep a straight face. She was very good friends with Ray's partner now, but that was a subject that she never imagined she would ever discuss with the Mountie.

Ray laughed as he thought about that for a moment. "Er, OK, forget I said that." His fingers began to dance across her abdomen.

"Ray...mmm...Ray...I love you, but..." she sighed as his touch sent shivers of delight through her whole body, "remember Stella's calling round this morning...mmm...so you can sign those court papers for...oh...mmm...for the Reitman case."

"I love ya too and we have time," grinned Ray, moving closer and wrapping his leg over hers. "We'll make it quick."

It took all of Jessica's willpower to untangle herself from her lover and sit up. "It's not nearly as much fun if we do it quick," she pouted.

"Ya didn't say that last week in the car outside the Consulate," grinned Ray. They'd been waiting for Fraser. It was late at night, but Turnbull had run out to tell them that he was involved in something for Inspector Thatcher and would be another fifteen minutes. Ray had figured that fifteen minutes was plenty long enough and although it was a little awkward and the handbrake had got in the way at times, on the whole it had been a success.

Jess smiled at the memory too. Ray had this amazing ability to make her feel and act like a teenager again. Not that she'd ever done anything like that when she was a teenager of course. She leaned over a kissed Ray passionately, reigniting his hopes.

"We have great sex Jess," he murmured.

"Yes we do," replied Jessica, "I love you." He wrapped her arms around her and tried to pull her down on top of him, but she forced herself to break free again. "I don't think I've recovered from last night yet anyway," she said and Ray slumped away in disappointment. Jessica felt a little guilty then. "I don't know where you get the energy from?" she smiled, returning for one more quick kiss before getting out of bed.

"Fraser says coffee makes me hyper...um, hyperactive," replied Ray with a shrug, watching as she sashayed naked across his bedroom, her hair floating over her shoulders.

"He's right," agreed Jessica. "You should drink his bark tea, it's delicious and very good for you."

Ray groaned. "Not you as well."

Jessica pulled out some clean clothes from her overnight bag. "Anyway," she said, "Stella will be here soon and we haven't had breakfast, so unless we're going to have this meeting in bed..." her voice trailed off and she could have kicked herself as she realised how that sounded. She waited for the inevitable response from Ray's one track mind.

He didn't disappoint her. "Might be kinda fun?" Ray grinned, his eyes wide. He was so comfortable with Jessica now that not only could he often talk about Stella without causing a dull ache in his soul, he could even joke about his ex wife too. He hadn't realised it himself of course, he hadn't noticed how good Jessica was for him, but Fraser had seen it and it pleased him greatly.

Jessica blushed, screwed up her nose and grabbed the first thing she could lay her hands on to throw across the room at him. Ray instinctively put his hands up to his face and caught the lacy panties. He held them up in the air and admired them. This wasn't helping his current predicament. He threw her underwear back to her, then kicked off the bedcovers and looked down at himself again. It was beginning to get unbearable. "What am I meant to, er, do with this then?" he asked.

Jessica had slipped on her panties now and walked back across to the bed. She narrowed her eyes and squinted down at him. "With what?" she asked innocently. Then she leaned over and peered closely at him. "Oh I see it now," she said, trying not to laugh.

"Hey!" exclaimed Ray, feigning hurt feelings, "insultin' a cop is a criminal offence y'know! I might have to arrest ya..." then he winked knowingly at her before adding, "...again."

"That's assaulting not insulting," laughed Jessica, "and you know I'm only kidding. You're more than enough man for me." At that moment she realised that he'd won, she was beaten, she just couldn't resist him anymore. He was lying there naked and ready for her, with his hair all crumpled and his beautiful eyes virtually begging her. She swallowed hard. "Why have you gotta be so darned hot and sexy," she sighed as she climbed back onto the bed and straddled his torso.

Ray smiled up at her. "It's a gift," he replied, licking his lips in anticipation.

Jessica leaned forward for another kiss. "OK, fifteen minutes," she whispered.

xXx

"Please thank your mother for this recipe," Edie York stuck the handwritten piece of paper to her fridge with a magnet. "Harry loved Italian food, but I haven't made fresh pasta since...well since..." her voice trailed off.

Francesca smiled at her and helped herself to another pastry. "These are delicious," she said, eager to keep Edie from feeling down at this time in the morning. "Ma said you're welcome to join us for dinner any time."

"That's very kind of her," smiled Edie. Ever since that nasty business with the Reitmans, she'd found herself with so many new friends. She saw someone almost every day and she certainly never felt lonely any more. If it wasn't Francesca, or Lisa, or Benton, it was that nice Constable Turnbull stopping by to sample her latest baking endeavours. In fact, she sometimes wished that she could have a day to herself occasionally, although she felt guilty for thinking that after years of being alone.

"I have to get to work," said Francesca, "Harding has arranged for me to spend the morning on the firing range."

"He has?" Edie was very surprised. Francesca was a lovely girl, but the thought of her with a gun was quite terrifying.

"Yes, well I'll be going to the Academy soon and now that I've already made my first arrest I'm sure the tutors will expect me to be top of all my classes," Francesca pushed her hair behind her ears and stood up a little straighter with pride, "so I don't want to disappoint anyone."

Edie couldn't help laughing. Francesca certainly believed that she would be a great Police Officer and with that amount of determination then she might just make it, thought Edie.

Just then there was a knock at the door. "Oh that will be Aldo," said Edie, picking up her walking stick and heading out to open the door.

"Who's Aldo?" queried Francesca.

"He's one of the new carers that Jessica arranged for me," replied Edie, "he's a lovely young man, very handsome too," she added with a twinkle in her eye. Francesca's ears pricked up at that. "Jessica said he reminds her of Benton, but I'm not sure about that myself."

Edie opened the door and Francesca had to steady herself against the wall when she saw the man who stepped inside and greeted the old lady warmly. He had dark hair, blue eyes and Jessica had been absolutely right, he could be Fraser's double. Her palms began to sweat and she felt as though her heart was going to burst through her chest.

Aldo noticed her and immediately his brow furrowed in concern. "Are you alright?" he asked, stepping forward and taking her arm. Of course that only made her feel worse.

"Fine, I'm fine," she breathed, smiling up into his eyes, "you must be Aldo, I'm Francesca."

"I think you should sit down Francesca," Aldo led her to the sofa as Edie looked on in amusement.

Francesca tried to breathe and she fanned herself with her hand. "It's just a little hot in here," she said, "I'm a cop you see...well, almost...and staying alert all the time can be..."

"I think you should rest here for a minute or two," said Aldo, taking her pulse. He wasn't quite sure what was wrong with her.

"Will you stay with me?" asked Francesca, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Of course," replied Aldo.

"Oh..." Francesca whimpered. She couldn't help herself. "Are you...are you doing anything this evening?"

xXx

"You just have to sign it there," Stella slid the file across the coffee table towards her ex husband, pointing to the right place with her pen, "then I can get these filed with the judge."

Ray scribbled his name on the paper. "Still feels like he's gettin' away with it all," he sighed. Jessica appeared carrying two cups of coffee, handing one to Stella and one to Ray, earning herself a kiss and a "Thanks baby," from Ray.

Stella glanced out of the window. She was annoyed with herself for feeling uncomfortable at seeing Ray with someone else, but she couldn't help it. Jessica was nice and she seemed to be good for Ray, he was slightly less tightly wound these days. Stella was pleased that he'd finally moved on, that he'd finally stopped pining for her. It wasn't that long ago that he'd still been following her about, spying on her and when she'd been dating other guys he'd completely freaked out. At least he'd found happiness in his life, maybe it would be her turn next.

"So how long until Josh Reitman can start on the rehabilitation programme?" asked Jessica, "being in jail isn't helping him at all." She sat herself next to Ray.

"As soon as the judge agrees to all this then I assume he'll be moved to the secure unit straight away," replied Stella, flicking through the paperwork. "I just hope Judge Wallace agrees with my request. All these psych reports and the doctors' evaluations are pretty strong though, there's no reason why it would get thrown out. The man isn't mentally fit to stand trial."

"Still feels like he's, er, like he's got away with it all, or somethin'," sighed Ray, sipping the last of his coffee.

"Ray we talked about this," snapped Stella, "we agreed it all with the family and Reitman's been very forthcoming with information about his drug suppliers. There's no way I'd get a murder one charge to stick anyway, it wasn't premeditated, there was no intent to kill. His brother feels he can be helped so that's what we're going with. He's got a strong case Ray, the man was hooked on alcohol and drugs and he's been diagnosed with various mental disorders. Maybe he can turn his life around?"

"I know we'd never have got the sonofabitch who was dealin' that, er, date rape stuff if the creep hadn't told us where to find him and it sure felt good to kick 'im in the head...er, I mean arrest him in accordance with all the, um, proper procedures...or whatever, but I still wish Reitman could rot in jail," Ray slammed his empty coffee cup on the table, stood up and walked towards the window.

"Ray, it's a secure unit, not a hotel," retorted Stella, angrily, trying to pretend she hadn't heard the details of Ray's method of arrest. She'd done a lot of work to arrange all this for Josh Reitman. "Judge Wallace is going to recommend five to seven years as a minimum and it's not an easy programme." She suddenly wondered if she was trying to convince herself as much as Ray. Maybe she was going soft? She knew she could have pushed and got a stronger sentence for attempted murder, kidnap and rape charges if she'd tried, but after talking with Brett Reitman she'd agreed to do everything she could to spare his brother from jail. "He'll have annual reviews," she continued, "and if it's not working out then he stands trial."

Ray turned back round to face her. "Ya really think this is a good idea?"

"I think he deserves a chance," replied Stella.

"So do I," added Jessica, "and Brett needs this Ray. It would kill him to see his brother go to jail when he's just starting to get his life back together. I'm sure that there's a good person in Josh Reitman somewhere, there has to be."

"You," Ray pointed a finger at his girlfriend, "are too much like Fraser, y'know that? He has this dumb habit of, er, seein' good in all the scumbags and lowlifes." Jessica looked hurt. "OK, that wasn't really an insult Jess," Ray's face was apologetic.

Jessica smiled now. "I know," she replied, "I wish I could be more like Ben."

"Just don't start lickin' dirt off people's boots," grinned Ray and Jessica laughed.

"Well I should be getting to the courthouse," said Stella, eager to get away from the domestic bliss. She crossed to the door and Ray opened it for her.

"See ya Stell," he smiled and Stella nodded and left. Ray closed the door and sighed.

"Ray, this is the right thing to do," said Jessica encouragingly.

"Yeah, I know," replied Ray, quietly. "I guess I, er, I can't be like you? Or Stella."

Jessica smiled. "You still hate it when you're in the same room as both of us don't you."

"No," replied Ray quickly, "well..." he laughed. "I guess I'm kinda nervous coz, er, you two are gettin' along."

"I don't think Stella and I are going to start meeting for lunch, if that's what you're worried about," replied Jessica with a smile.

Ray forced out a laugh. That was exactly what he was worried about. His worst fear was that his ex wife would get talking to Jessica and frighten her away. He felt sure that Stella probably thought all sorts of bad things about him and he figured that Jessica should get the opportunity to find out things like that for herself, before she decided to leave him...which she was bound to eventually of course, because why would such a great and wonderful girl like her possibly want to spend any length of time with him anyway? A wave of emotion took him by surprise and he turned away from her and headed towards the kitchen.

"Ray?" Jessica was suddenly concerned. This seemed to happen sometimes when he saw Stella and she wasn't quite sure how to take it. Was he still in love with his ex wife? No, that wasn't it at all, she realised. She pulled him round by his arm and he didn't put up any resistance. His head was bowed as he struggled to compose himself. Jessica bit hard on her bottom lip and pressed the palm of her hand on the centre of his chest.

The significance of the gesture wasn't lost on Ray. He managed half a smile. "Sorry," he mumbled, lifting his head slightly to look into her eyes, "I, er, I guess I'm not quite...um..."

"Sshhh," smiled Jessica, "she hurt you, I get that, but it's OK, you don't have to try to hide that from me."

Ray lifted her hand from his chest and pulled her into a hug. "I love ya," he said as the tears flowed. "Sorry, ya shouldn't have to deal with all this." He was so angry at himself. He thought he was over Stella finally, but sometimes all the memories and all the hurt just came flooding back and he didn't know how to deal with it.

"Ray, I love you too," said Jessica as she held him tight. "Will you please stop apologising? I understand."

Ray pulled away and wiped eyes with his hand. He didn't deserve this amazing woman, he knew that. Oh god he was the luckiest man in the world...don't let this one get away Kowalski. He took a deep breath and a grin returned to his face. He tapped the side of his head with his index finger. "Damaged," he said and Jessica frowned at him. She hated it when he said that as much as Fraser did. "So," he said, forcing those last few remaining dark thoughts to the back of his mind again. "Bed?"

Jessica slapped his arm playfully. "We only got out of bed an hour ago! Maybe later," she said, "I have to meet a client and you're meeting Fraser at the hospital in..." she glanced at her watch and looked shocked, "ten minutes Ray! I think you're going to be a little late."

Ray quickly grabbed his gun holster and slung it around his shoulders. "OK, let's go, pitter patter," he said, running towards the door, "you are, um, stayin' here again tonight, aren't ya?" he asked as Jessica grabbed her purse and slipped her feet into some black slingbacks.

"I'll have to go home sometime," she replied. Then she caught Ray's deflated look and added with a smile, "to get some more clothes."

Ray leaned in and stole a kiss from those delicate lips. "Greatness," he said.

xXx

Fraser stood in the doorway of the physiotherapy room at the hospital and steadied his nerves. This was the same room that he'd spent so many hours recovering in after he'd been shot and even though he'd been here a few times in recent weeks, it wasn't getting much easier to get past those memories. He took a deep breath and watched as Mikey walked along between the bars. His progress was impressive. He got to the end and turned himself around carefully, preparing to walk back again when he caught sight of the Mountie.

"Hi Fraser," he called out, taking one hand off the bar and waving.

Fraser immediately noticed how he had held his balance easily with only one hand and caught the eye of Jane Bennet, Mikey's physiotherapist, who smiled in acknowledgement of the achievement. "I'm sorry," said Fraser, "I didn't want to interrupt."

"It's OK, I think we're done here for now," replied Jane. "Why don't you show Constable Fraser what we've been practising this morning?" She passed him his walking frame and helped the boy step down and take hold of it, ensuring that he had his balance before letting go.

Fraser had a lump in his throat as Mikey used the frame to walk across the floor towards him. His right leg was much stronger than his left and Mikey had been working really hard to get his strength back. He had good days and bad days of course, sometimes he got frustrated if he felt he hadn't made much progress. Sometimes he was just too tired to work and sometimes he still got confused and scared as the synapses in his brain were still knitting back together.

Fraser broke into applause. "Well done," he said, taking his hat from under his arm and plopping it onto Mikey's head, much to the child's delight. "Would you like me to take you back to your room now son?" Mikey nodded and Fraser helped him into his wheelchair.

"I'll see you tomorrow," said Jane and she left him in Fraser's capable hands.

Mikey chatted excitedly to Fraser as he wheeled the boy back to the hospital room that had been his home for the last two months. "...so maybe I'll be able to get out of here in two or three weeks," he said.

"That is good news," replied Fraser, "I imagine you are keen to return home." Mikey concurred enthusiastically as they arrived at the door of his room.

At that moment, Brett and Lisa walked round the corner and smiled when they saw their son looking so happy. "How was your session?" asked Lisa, leaning forward and kissing the top of his head.

"Cool," replied Mikey, "ask Fraser." They went into his room and Brett cleared a huge pile of soft toys from the bed.

"He has made excellent progress," confirmed Fraser as he helped Mikey clamber into bed.

"I'm so proud of you Son," beamed Brett and he put his arm around Lisa. Fraser noticed the look shared between the couple. They'd decided to make another go of their marriage. After everything that had happened they'd realised that they still loved each other and they wanted to be a family again.

"Well if you'll excuse me, I am meeting Ray shortly," said Fraser as Mikey handed his hat back to him. "I just wanted to see how you were getting on."

"Thanks Fraser," smiled Mikey and Fraser placed his hat squarely on his head and left the room. He hadn't got far down the corridor when he heard Lisa's voice calling his name.

"Lisa? Is everything alright?" he asked with concern as she ran to catch up with him.

"I just wanted..." she trailed off and let out a breath. "Is there somewhere we can go to talk?"

"Of course," replied Fraser, "shall we sit outside? It's a lovely day and Diefenbaker is waiting for me."

Lisa nodded and they headed out to the small hospital garden. They sat on a wooden bench and Lisa made a fuss of Dief as she thought about what she wanted to say. Eventually she spoke. "This thing with Josh," she said quietly, "being mentally unfit to stand trial, or whatever it is..."

"That is the correct term," confirmed Fraser. "You are unhappy with it, I assume."

Lisa nodded. "I know he's Brett's brother so I get why he's pushing for this, but Josh is not mentally unfit, he's just a...he's a..." Lisa broke down and sobbed into Dief's neck.

"Lisa," Fraser put a supportive hand on her back, "several psychiatrists have assessed his mental condition."

Lisa sat upright suddenly and Fraser could see the anger in her eyes. "He killed a woman," she said, "and he almost killed my son and he could have killed me and he's just getting away with it all."

"I understand your frustrations," replied Fraser calmly, "but we have to trust the system. Josh has the opportunity to be rehabilitated, but he has to work with the programme and any sign that he's not cooperating could mean a reassessment and a return to the judicial process."

"Brett says I should forgive him," sniffed Lisa, "he says I'm harbouring all this anger and it's not healthy and I should try to move on for Mikey's sake." She hung her head again and Dief gently licked the side of her face.

"I believe that your husband is a very perceptive man," replied Fraser, "you have a chance to rebuild your family, don't let what happened jeopardise that," and then he added, in a quiet voice, "although I do understand how difficult it can be to forgive."

Lisa lifted her head and looked into Fraser's eyes. "It sounds like you have personal experience?"

Fraser nodded. "I first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of my father," he stated.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea," Lisa said quietly. "Mounties always get their man, so I assume you found them?"

"That's not actually our motto," explained Fraser, pulling slowly at his earlobe, "but yes I did. His name was Gerrard and he was a very good friend of my father's. I'd known him since I was a boy, I respected him and it was a huge shock to discover what he had done."

Now it was Lisa's turn to offer physical support by way of a quick squeeze of his strong forearm. "Have you forgiven him yet?" she asked, although she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

Fraser shook his head sadly. "Not yet," he replied, quietly, "but I'm working on it."

xXx

"I need another drink!" Detective Tom Dewey tried to stand, but he was stopped by his partner.

"You stay right there," grinned Jack Huey, "I'll get these. What are you guys having?"

"Another beer," said Ray, lifting his empty bottle.

"I've had two glasses of pineapple juice already," said Fraser, "so I think this time I should stick to mineral water, thank you kindly Jack."

Ray and Jack exchanged a glance and tried not to laugh at the Mountie. "Yeah, you're such a, er, hard drinker there Fraser. Lay off the fruit juice buddy."

"Pineapple juice contains an amount of natural sugar that when consumed in high quantities could lead to certain health issues," began Fraser, as Jack headed towards the bar to place the order, "although..."

Ray held up his hand to stop him talking. "OK, not in the mood Fraser. Well I guess we don't want ya gettin' sick or nothin'," he said. He looked at his beer bottle and called out after Jack. "Hey, er, better make mine water too."

They turned their attentions back to Tom, who was looking ghostly white. "I'm not sure that alcoholic beverages are the most appropriate thing to steady your nerves," said Fraser, "perhaps I could recommend a herbal tea instead?"

Tom looked into Fraser's eyes. "She was waving it around like a...like a...fairy wand! She could have killed someone...me! Look, I'm still shaking..." Tom held out his hands as proof.

"I must say I was surprised at Lieutenant Welsh's decision to allow Francesca onto the firing range with a loaded weapon," noted Fraser.

"And why did I have to go with her?" asked a still trembling Tom Dewey.

"Payback?" suggested Ray, rocking back and forth, balancing on the back legs of his chair. "Y'know, for all the times ya act like a jerk?"

Tom was too disturbed to think of a comeback to Ray's insult. "She can't be a cop," he shook his head in despair, "she'll make a terrible cop."

"Actually I believe that Francesca has some admirable qualities," offered Fraser. Ray almost lost his balance and toppled back on his chair, only to be caught by the quick reflexes of his partner, who pushed his chair back into an upright position.

"Thanks," mumbled Ray, quickly looking around to see if anyone noticed. Fraser responded with a thumbs up sign. "Name one Fraser," continued Ray, "name one cop quality that Frannie has."

"Well," began Fraser as Jack returned with a tray of drinks, "we've already witnessed her in action Ray. She's quite fearless and determined, she makes excellent observations of people and situations, she has a clear sense of justice..."

"OK," Ray interrupted him again, "well I pity the, er, the other guys at the Academy, that's all."

Tom clasped his beer bottle tightly with both hands as if he could draw strength from it somehow. "She wasn't even concentrating," he clearly wasn't going to forget his experience on the firing range with Francesca in a hurry, "she kept talking about some guy called Aldo?"

"Aldo?" Fraser frowned, "Edie York's new carer? Why would she be talking about him?"

"I think they're dating," replied Tom with a confused look on his face, "but then she said she only met the poor guy this morning, so maybe I got that wrong?" He picked up his beer bottle and gulped down the entire contents in one go.

"C'mon Tom," said Jack, leaving his half drunk beer on the table and standing up, "I think I should get you home."

Tom started nodding profusely. "Yeah, I need today to be over with," he said and shakily got to his feet.

"See ya tomorrow guys," said Ray as the two other detectives left the bar. He looked back to his buddy and then despondently at their two glasses of water. "This is stupid," he laughed, "let's go."

Fraser nodded and the two of them walked out into the crisp Chicago night air. "What d'ya think about Reitman buddy, about him not goin' to jail I mean?" asked Ray as Diefenbaker appeared from somewhere to join them.

"I believe that he deserves a chance to receive the proper treatment for his conditions," replied Fraser. "I take it that you don't agree?"

Ray shrugged. "Dunno really," he replied, "it just feels kinda wrong, after what he did."

"I talked to Lisa Reitman earlier," Fraser continued, "she is of a similar opinion to you."

"Can't blame her," noted Ray.

"Indeed," said Fraser and Dief yapped, apparently agreeing with him.

"I mean, the guy was smart enough to get what he wanted. He was smart enough to, er, get rid of the body after he'd killed Barbara Letz and he was smart enough to get one of his favourite girls to rent him a car so he could take Mikey and cover his tracks," Ray was starting to get wound up again and he began to wish he'd had another beer after all. "Then he was smart enough to get outta that car wreck and run before we got there. Doesn't sound like he's, um, mentally unfit to me?"

"You and I are not in a position to make that judgement Ray," Fraser pointed out.

"I guess," agreed Ray, "Jess knows more about that stuff than me and, er, she thinks it's right. She's too nice sometimes though."

"Would you rather Jessica was less nice?" queried Fraser. "You make it sound like a quality you'd prefer she didn't posses."

Ray laughed. "Y'know Fraser, I love all of her qualities. I love everythin' about her." He stopped walking and turned to face his partner. "I, um, I kinda freaked out this mornin'."

"Oh dear," replied Fraser with concern, "define 'freaked out' in this instance."

Ray shook his head. "It was just stupid, it was after Stella left and...I dunno buddy. Jess was cool about it though...I mean really cool. She's like, the most incredible person I've ever met. She makes me feel..." his voice trailed off and he laughed, slightly embarrassed, "I was gonna say 'happy' Fraser, but that sounds kinda lame."

"I am quite aware of how happy Jessica makes you feel Ray," smiled Fraser.

Ray took a deep breath. "I'm, er, I'm thinkin' of askin' her to move in," he said. "Is it too soon d'ya think?"

"Ray, I'm not exactly an expert on relationships, as you know," began Fraser.

"Yeah, but you're an expert on me," interrupted Ray. "Am I makin' a mistake, I don't wanna..."

"Get hurt again?" Fraser finished his sentence for him and Ray nodded in confirmation. "Jessica is not Stella," Fraser pointed out, "my advice to you is..." he paused and thought for a moment, "to follow your heart," he said. Suddenly he thought about the time he'd followed his own heart. That had ended badly though, very badly, but of course Jessica wasn't like Victoria...nobody was like Victoria.

"Hey, you OK?" asked Ray, noticing that Fraser had lost focus.

"Of course," replied Fraser, snapping his thoughts back to the conversation in hand.

"Y'know, you'll find someone too one day," Ray said, suddenly feeling guilty about discussing how happy he was when he knew that Fraser was so lonely. "Maybe I could, um, ask Jess if she's got any hot friends?" Ray tried to keep a straight face as he spoke, he knew that was a really bad idea.

A look of terror spread across his buddy's face. "Er, um, thank you kindly Ray, but..."

"Relax Fraser," grinned Ray, "I was kiddin'. You'll find someone, you'll see."

Fraser smiled and nodded.

"So, um, what about Frannie with a gun?" Ray said, keen to lighten the mood, "what d'ya really think about her bein' a cop?"

Fraser let out a slow breath. "Honestly?" he paused and Ray nodded, "I think the criminals of Chicago had better beware."

THE END


End file.
